NEW YORK -- Upon his return to U.S. soil Wednesday afternoon, three-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong did everything American. He cruised Manhattan, appeared as a guest on the "Late Show with David Letterman" and threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium.
|  | | Lance Armstrong throws out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium to start New York's game against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday. |
On Friday, he'll meet with the President. He knows well the path to the White House, but this time the President happens to be a familiar face from Armstrong's home of Austin, Texas.
The nation has embraced Armstrong once again as the ultimate comeback kid. Just five years ago, Armstrong's chances of living looked grim, as he battled an aggressive testicular cancer that had spread to his abdomen, lungs and brain.
But the lack of American interest in cycling, combined with the absence of live network television coverage throughout the 20-stage race has made it harder for Armstrong to gain a greater, and perhaps earned, fame in his native land. After all, if he makes the cut for conversations at the office water cooler, it's only for two to three weeks a year.
Before Armstrong took a seat on David Letterman on Wednesday night, Letterman joked that he'd be interviewing Lance Armstrong, "the first man to walk on the moon." Funny thing is, there are plenty of people out there who were wondering why the audience laughed instead of clapped.
Twenty minutes before a news conference at Yankee stadium, two men who operate the rotating signage carried on a conversation. "Lance Armstrong's going to be here tonight," one of the men said. "Who's Lance Armstrong?" said the other.
Armstrong said he is not concerned with how he will be received in the United States when he's dominating the mountain stages of the Tour de France.
"There's a certain sense of disconnect when we're over there because I don't have my computer when I'm on the Tour," said Armstrong, speaking from the Yankees' auxiliary clubhouse after his first pitch. "I don't read the USA Today every day, like I normally would if I'm at home in France training. So you don't know what's going on. You don't know if anybody's covering it. You don't know if anyone's paying attention."
Because Armstrong only lives in this country in the offseason -- he spends the season training in France -- he's probably the most famous American athlete who can still enjoy some degree of anonymity when visiting the Big Apple.
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You never know what to expect. And you never expect that they're going to cheer. Again, I'm out of touch when I'm in the tour -- not following the media, not following the people. You don't know if there's going to be two people standing up clapping or if they're all going to stand up and clap. It's a surprise. ” |
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— Lance Armstrong |
Case in point: Armstrong appeared serious when he told reporters he would be riding his bike in Manhattan on Thursday. "No, really?" asked one reporter. "No. Don't put that," Armstrong begged.
But for all their shortcomings, Armstrong doesn't blame Americans. The fact he could walk down a New York City street without being mobbed is just the way it is, he said. As long as he's not doing his work in this country, his exposure will be minimal.
"It's like some of these Japanese players coming over here and playing baseball since this is the major leagues," Armstrong said. "And for us, the major leagues are in Europe, and they are the Tour de France or the Tour of Italy. It's not reasonable to think that I can do it over here."
Armstrong's story has become one of the greatest in all of sports and that's why it's almost laughable that Armstrong honestly doesn't know how he'll be received when he shows up at a place like Yankee Stadium, where 40,000 people stood and roared as he took the mound.
"You never know what to expect," Armstrong said. "And you never expect that they're going to cheer. Again, I'm out of touch when I'm in the Tour -- not following the media, not following the people. You don't know if there's going to be two people standing up clapping or if they're all going to stand up and clap. It's a surprise."
That's probably one of the reasons Armstrong still acts like a rookie, despite making his U.S. victory tour for a third year in a row. Tiger Woods would never mention the police escorts that took him from Manhattan to the Bronx or how nervous he was to throw out the first pitch.
"One time I had an opportunity to shoot a golf shot for a million bucks for cancer research at the Jimmy V tournament in North Carolina and there were thousands of people lining the fairways," Armstrong recalled. "Just a par-3 shot -- I mean anybody could hit it, right? I hit it about 10 feet. I was so nervous.
"So I was afraid that was going to happen again tonight. But I got it down there."
Darren Rovell is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com.
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