Time to send in Goldin

Nobel Prize laureate Claudia Goldin was invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Red Sox game, so predictably she did her research.

Since getting the nod in April, Goldin dug out the baseball mitt she first used on her intermural team at Princeton in the 1970s, when she was an assistant professor. She watched countless YouTube videos and enlisted several friends and former students for instruction on form and mechanics. 

“I’ve been throwing balls my whole life, but it’s been pitching to a dog with its mouth open 25 feet away. Using a real baseball has more heft,” said Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics.

As a matter of fact, an early throwing session with a former student landed her in the emergency room with a split forehead and a bad bruise. “I had the ball with me because no one could understand what happened,” she said.

Among her most dedicated instructors/cheerleaders was Bridget Long, the Saris Professor of Education and Economics and a former student of Goldin’s, along with her husband, Carl Long. Their teenage sons, both left-handed pitchers, gave Goldin help with mechanics. 

Last Friday evening, the left-handed Goldin, wearing 14 on her jersey (for her golden retriever Pika’s age and her own birthdate), took the field 47 feet from home plate. (“I’m not throwing from the mound, which is 60.5 feet,” said the 78-year-old economist.)

She landed a perfect pitch to Red Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks, who asked her to autograph the baseball for him.

“I don’t even remember it,” she said, coming off the field.

But Carl Long was ecstatic. “They might call her in for relief,” he said. The Sox ended up beating the Yankees 9-7 and didn’t need a lefty laureate as a closer.