ANAHEIM, Calif, - Capt. Victor Glover, M.S., has faced a number of daunting tasks in his life. From flying fighter jets as a Navy pilot to being one of four crew members on the Artemis II mission that flew past the moon in April 2026, the first crewed flight to leave Earth's low orbit since 1972. But on Friday he faced possibly his most daunting task yet.
Throwing out the first pitch at a Los Angeles Angels game, to Mike Trout no less.
"That may be the thing I'm the most nervous about," Glover said. "Can I take a selfie and throw a pitch at the same time? It's just cool to be here and I'm gonna just focus on that, having fun and trying to enjoy the energy in the stadium."
Captain Victor Glover, a member of the Artemis 2 crew that circled the moon earlier this year, is here to throw out the first pitch today pic.twitter.com/6RsCLrVlkH
— Jack Haslett (@JackHaslett_13) June 12, 2026
Glover's Tour Around SoCal
Glover, a Pomona, CA native, has had quite the press tour in Southern California since he and his crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. One of the most surreal for Glover was when he visited Ontario High School, his alma mater, to see that a building on campus had been named after him.
Now he was standing on the field of the Big A before a game between the Angels and Tampa Bay Rays, where he recounted tales from his time on his mission, like when he saw the sun eclipse behind the moon from space, or his time back on Earth adjusting to gravity again.
NASA/Bill Ingalls / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
NASA astronaut Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot, left, and NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, sit on a Navy MH-60 Seahawk from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23 on the flight deck of USS John P. Murtha after they and crewmates Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Artemis II mission specialist, and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander, were extracted from their Orion spacecraft after splashdown, April 10 in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
Glover also shared several pearls of wisdom about life, hard work and especially, sports.
An athlete in high school and college when he attended Cal Poly, primarily competing in wrestling and football, Glover shared that he tried to play every sport in high school, including baseball, which was sure to help his first pitch efforts.
A lifelong Raiders fan, whether they were in Los Angeles, Oakland or Las Vegas, he said, Glover has plenty of fond memories of time at the stadium and even some permanent reminders of those memories.
Learning From and Loving Sports
One of those being a scar on the top of his head that he got after slipping and falling down at the Oakland Coliseum, something that Glover said now serves as a permant reminder to slow down every once in a while.
"I love sports... I'm a fan of human greatness," Glover said. "I love to watch people with gifts share their gifts, and I mean, just watching batting practice... Everybody out there was gifted, and it's amazing to just see. My life has been a lot of sacrifice and one of the things I've sacrificed is watching a season of anything."
Even past college at Cal Poly, where he studied general engineering for his bachelor's degree before later receiving master's degrees from three different institutions, sports have remained a big part of Glover's life, even if he doesn't have the chance to watch as many games anymore considering that he is, well, an astronaut.
Glover especially appreciates the kind of mental benefits that sports, and exercising in general, have and he gave as much credit to where he is today to his physical fitness as he did his studies and military experience.
"I think they're intimately linked. I give as much credit to that as studying engineering and flying jets in the Navy. All of those things came together to help me learn and really to acquire the skills [of being an astronaut]," Glover said.
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The crew of Artemis II (from left) Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman pose for pictures as their ride to the moon is transported from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. to the launch pad Jan. 17, 2026.
He continued, "But the big thing about sports is that whether you win or lose, Monday you're in the gym, you're on the track, you're on the diamond and you're putting in the work and that's kind of an amazing life skill to build over time... I think athletics is for the young people trying to figure out what you want to do... One thing that science has proven also is healthy for your brain... The one thing that's good for your brain is moving your body, and so having a healthy body is one way to keep your brain healthier."
Conquering Nerves
On the surface, there's a clear gap in magnitude between Glover throwing out the first pitch and what he's used to doing, flying jets, serving in the military and, again, going to space.
The common ground that Glover found though between all of those tasks is the nerves. Whether it's walking to the mound ahead of the game, being loaded into a rocket destined to leave the atmosphere, or even something more mundane in anyone's life like getting ready to give a speech or learn to drive, there are going to be nerves present.
The key for Glover is learning to live with those nerves and even learn from them.
Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Cristina Koch Artemis II mission specialist (left), and commander Reid Wiseman (right) listen to pilot Victor Glover as they talk about their upcoming mission during a press conference at Kennedy Space Center, FL Monday, December 16, 2024 . Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK
"There's all kinds of things in the world that make you nervous. And I would say, instead of trying to think of the idea of doing things that don't make me nervous... I just know how to handle it. Things make me nervous, and I still do the thing. That's actually a gift. I don't think of nerves as this thing to avoid, or even to just get through. I think of it as an indication that what you're doing matters. What you're doing is really special."
Now, the time has come for Glover to put his interstellar experience to work and deliver a rocket from the mound to Trout and kick off aerospace night at the Big A.