Will Ferrell’s well documented love of sports soared to a whole new level Thursday. Ferrell stormed through Arizona spring training and emerged just like Will Ferrell.The actor played all nine field positions, plus appeared as a pinch hitter and 3rd base coach in five games for 10 teams in Spring Training in Arizona. The journey was an attempt to help raise cancer awareness. As you might imagine, Ferrell’s presence on the diamond caused a ruckus. The star of ''Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,'' ''Elf'' and many other movies started in an Oakland Athletics uniform at noon, then was off to four other ballparks, playing for each team, and at every position along the way. Ten teams, five ballparks.

''`When I embarked on this journey way back at breakfast,'' Ferrell said, ''I thought to myself, `Could I do it?' The answer is yes.''


Ferrell wore No. 19 for every team except his last one. He didn't want to wear the late Tony Gwynn's number, so donned No. 20 for the Padres. ''I never would have thought Will Ferrell would play second base behind me,'' Seattle pitcher Jordan Pries said. ''Honestly, I didn't want anything to go that way, but I was just trying to pitch. Once the ball leaves my hand, I have no control. I didn't realize what a spectacle, a circus, it was going to be. You want to get your work in but you want to have fun, too.'' His caravan took him from Mesa to Tempe to Scottsdale. From there, he rode by helicopter across north Phoenix to Glendale, making a triumphant landing in the nick of time in center field at the Camelback Ranch ballpark where the San Francisco Giants and Chicago White Sox were entering the ninth inning.And in his final stop, in Peoria, he took the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers and got San Diego's Rico Noel, the only batter he faced, to bounce out to the pitcher.

Then he walked off the mound toward second base in dismay when manager Don Mattingly came out to replace him. ''Mattingly already cut me,'' Ferrell told Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda outside the dugout. Eight and one-half hours after he first took the field at shortstop for the Oakland A's, Ferrell played in right field for San Diego in the ninth inning. He had done it. As he walked off the field, Ferrell waved his cap and gave a security guard a high five. ''They say there's nothing more American than grabbing a hot dog, heading to the ballpark, and watching nine guys from the Dominican Republic,'' he said. ''... But you know what, today I learned that was wrong. They had eight Dominicans, and one guy from Irvine, California.''

This wasn't the first brush with pro ball for Farrell. In 2010, he pitched, albeit briefly, for the Triple-A Round Rock Express, wearing a fake mustache in the guise of ''Rojo Johnson,'' a pitcher with a fiery temperament. He threw one pitch behind the Nashville batter. As he left the field, he ripped off the mustache and waved triumphantly to the crowd. Two years later, he and fellow actor Zach Galifianakis invaded a Cubs game, throwing out the first pitch then hilariously butchering the introduction of the lineups.


At the end of his remarks, he dropped out of character.


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