Newly freed Pittsburgh native Marc Fogel will throw out the first pitch at the Pirates' home opener

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Marc Fogel, a Pittsburgh-area school teacher who was deemed wrongfully held in a Russian prison for years before being freed in February, will throw out the first pitch at the Pittsburgh Pirates home opener against the New York Yankees on Friday.

The club made the announcement on Wednesday. Fogel is from Butler, about an hour north of Pittsburgh.

Fogel, 63, was detained in 2021 when traveling to Russia to work at a school and handed a 14-year sentence for having what his family and supporters said was medically prescribed marijuana. He was released and brought back to the U.S. in February in a swap that saw Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cryptocurrency expert who faced Bitcoin fraud charges in the U.S., returned to Russia.

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