Rep. Giffords’ intern will throw out first pitch at All-Star Game

Daniel Hernandez, the intern whose quick action was credited with helping save Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ life, will have a featured role at Tuesday’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Phoenix, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.

The family of Christina Taylor-Green, the young girl killed in the same Tucson shooting at a Giffords constituent event, will present the lineup cards before the game. Green’s grandfather, Dallas Green, is a former major league player and manager.

In an interview on Fox News Channel on Tuesday, Hernandez said he had been practicing with a colleague from Giffords’ office.

“Hopefully no bouncing,” he said.

He also threw out a first pitch at Nationals Park in Washington last month.

Giffords, the three-term Democrat who represents Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, recently returned to her home state for the first time since the January shooting that nearly took her life.

She visited with family and friends in Tucson on Father’s Day weekend before returning to Texas, where she continues to recover from the effects of the gunshot wound to her head. A spokesman said she would not be attending Tuesday’s game.

The showcase event for America’s pastime had taken on a different political context last year after Arizona enacted a strict illegal immigration law. Opponents of the measure urged Major League Baseball to move the game from Phoenix’s Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Major League Baseball Players Assn. warned that the new law, Senate Bill 1070, “could have a negative impact on hundreds of major league players who are citizens of countries other than the United States,” and some players even said they would boycott the game. No such protest has come to pass.