On Saturday night, my wife and I accompanied DraftKings’ Bucket List winner Zach (on the left) to throw out the first pitch at the Phillies game.

My role? Document the experience about the kind of surreal access you get from winning such a thing— and by all means, this was exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime type of access. Zack won the 600-700 person contest in June when he threw in a last minute MLB lineup. Now here he is standing on the mound at CBP:

There was a rain delay. So while the first pitch was temporarily on hold, we casually killed time in the press room, taking pictures at the podium. While we were in there, the Phillies rep showed us around and happened to get a call from Dan Baker making sure he had the right pronunciation of Zach’s last name. That’s the sign of a true pro– here’s a guy who has been the PA announcer forever, double-checking on the pronunciation of a random guy’s name for a first pitch of an ultimately meaningless game for a last place team in the middle of July.

As we walked out to the field, we bumped into the Phanatic and then hung behind the on-deck circles, right next to the Brewers’ dugout. Ryan Bruan never came out because he’s afraid of me. Baker struck up a conversation with Zach, once again checking the pronunciation of his name. Total pro.

These are the sorts of experiences you can get from DraftKings’ Bucket List experiences.

As part of DraftKings’ continued efforts to bring their customers closer to the sports and athletes they love, DraftKings offers once-in-a-lifetime, bucket list type of experiences. They partner with teams and leagues to literally brings fans inside the game. I almost won one myself back in the fall. I never put this on the site, but in Week 14 of the NFL season, I won $5,000 on a total of about $150 buy-in, with one lineup, across three or four leagues. One of them was a rewards league from having played so much during the season, and I believe the top three finishers earned a DraftKings’ Bucket List experience. I finished fourth, which was good for something like $2,500. I was heading into Sunday Night Football with an Eli Manning-Odell Beckham stack. I had already been put in a good position thanks to LeVeon Bell’s monster day and was up around $600. I noticed that virtually no one around me in any of the leagues had two players remaining heading into the late game. Some had either Manning or Beckham, but I was the only one who had both, meaning that one slant over the middle-turned touchdown would be a huge swing. This one:

https://youtu.be/D5T9E1c74Lk

It was a $4,000 swing and sent me to the top of multiple leagues. Had Beckham not dropped a potential first quarter touchdown, I would’ve walked away with around $50,000. And the Bucket List experience. Alas.

Both Zach and I are casual players, and I’ve walked away with real money and a chance at one of these Bucket List experiences, and Zach actually got it. You don’t need to play big to have both a good time and win with DraftKings. These type of experiences are deemed dream scenarios by every sports fan and maybe next time it could be you down there on the field.