Oakland Athletics sign viral video sensation Nathan Patterson

The Oakland Athletics have signed viral video sensation Nathan Patterson who recently threw 96 miles per hour at a Coors Field radar gun.

The Oakland Athletics have signed a star of a recent viral video to an actual contract. Yes, you read that correctly. The Oakland A’s — a Major League Baseball organization — have officially signed a viral video sensation to a legitimate contract.

Billy Beane has outdone himself once again.

Nathan Patterson was just a normal guy who was visiting a Colorado Rockies game just a few weeks ago when he tried his hand at one of the radar gun challenges at Coors Field. While most would struggle to top 60 miles per hour, Patterson effortlessly reached the mid-90’s.

And his crowning achievement was when he hit 96 miles per hour to the shock and delight of everyone around him. Fortunately, his impressive feat was recorded by his brother, Christian, and the short 40-second clip has since gone viral.

If you haven’t seen it yet you could check it out below.

Now, there’s a little more backstory to this as opposed to Patterson being some random person who walked up to a speed pitch challenge and decided he’d throw a baseball for the first time in his life.

Patterson played baseball in high school and even had offers from college teams but decided against it at the time. However, the 23-year-old refused to put his baseball career aside and began a ‘return’ sometime in the past year.

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Amazingly, Patterson accomplished the same feat when he threw 96 at a Nashville Sounds — then the Triple-A affiliate of the A’s — game last August. And after posting videos of himself working on his mechanics in January, the A’s began to take notice.

Following his viral Coors Field video, Oakland decided to throw Patterson a bone and actually sign him to a contract.

This is absolutely incredible for a multitude of reasons, headlined by the fact that a regular man who had not played baseball since high school was signed by an MLB franchise after impressing at a stadium’s speed pitch challenge.

Beane put it best when he supposedly asked, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?” And it’s hard to get any more romantic than this story.

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Realistically speaking, Patterson will still face an incredible uphill battle when it comes to actually reaching the major leagues. For the time being, the A’s will assign him to their rookie team in the Arizona League where he will continue to develop his skills.

And the fact that we’re saying this about a random person who was working a regular job just weeks ago is absolutely amazing. Massive credit should go out to Patterson for not giving up on his dream and having the guts to chase after it.

Not many people would have had the passion or enthusiasm to even attempt to go through with something like this so he deserves plenty of praise, regardless of how this story ends.

But if Patterson were to somehow reach the majors one day, the A’s wouldn’t be the only ones calling. Hollywood would be on line two.