Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: Presidents and Baseball
[Originally Posted June 23, 2013: This is a favorite of mine, and topical, as I am currently in Miami, where I watched the Miami Marlins host the San Francisco Giants the other night, and knocked another team off of my bucket list goal of seeing a game in all 30 major league ballparks].
If you're like me and are geeky about both Presidential history and baseball, then this post is for you. This being a nice summer Sunday and ideal for watching baseball (whether at the park or in the comfort of your own home), it seemed like a nice topic for this community today. I happened upon a series of pictures of Presidents throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a number of baseball games and thought they would be great to be the subject of a summer post.
1. On April 14, 1910 President William Howard Taft, all 300 plus pounds of him, became the first President to throw out a ceremonial first pitch in a game between the home town Washington Senators and the visiting Philadelphia Athletics. The Senators won the game 3-0. In his four year term Taft attended 14 games and threw out the opening pitch of the Senators' season twice. Of baseball, Taft said "The game of baseball is a clean, straight game, and it summons to its presence everybody who enjoys clean, straight athletics. It furnishes amusement to the thousands and thousands."
2. President Woodrow Wilson attended 11 games during his two terms. On October 9, 1915 he became the first President to attend a World Series game, in Philadelphia between the Phillies and the Boston Red Sox (who won the game 2-1). Wilson threw out the first pitch during game 2. During his freshman year at Davidson College he played on the college baseball team.
3. President Warren Harding died less than three years into his term, but he still managed to attend five games, and threw out the first pitch in the Senators' home opener every year. In 1920 then Senator Harding played in a charity baseball game in his hometown and actually injured his finger catching a hard hit ball.This picture was taken on April 12, 1922.
4. President Calvin Coolidge attended 10 games as president, including this one on April 24, 1928. On October 1, 1924, the Washington Senators won their very first American League pennant. Coolidge addressed the team on the White House lawn while nearly one-hundred thousand fans stood and watched. He said "They are a great band, these armored knights of the bat and ball. They are held up to high standard of honor on the field, which they have seldom betrayed. While baseball remains our national game, our national tastes will be on a higher level and our national ideals on a finer foundation. By bringing the baseball pennant to Washington you have made the National Capital more truly the center of worthy and honorable national aspirations."
5. President Herbert Hoover attended 9 games during his presidency and threw out the ceremonial first pitch to open the Washington Senators season each year of his term. Years later, as a retired president on August 13, 1960, an 86 year old Hoover threw out the first pitch at an old timers game in Yankee Stadium. Hoover briefly played for the Stanford University baseball team where he was, by his own admission, a "not-so-good shortstop". The team decided that his talents were better suited as manager of the team, and he once had to reminded former President Benjamin Harrison that he had forgotten to pay his admission to the game.
6. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt attended 11 games during his twelve plus years in office. (He had a depression and a war to deal with, and died very early into his four term.) He was severely affected by polio and required the assistance of his son James to stand during public occasions. In January of 1942, following the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour, Roosevelt wrote to baseball Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis suggesting that baseball continue in spite of the war.
7. President Harry Truman was the first southpaw president to throw out a ceremonial first pitch at an MLB Game. He went to 16 games, including a game 6 days after the surrender of Japan.
8. President Dwight Eisenhower played center field on his high school baseball team with his brother Edgar. When he entered West Point after high school he played junior varsity baseball with General Omar Bradley. As president he went to 13 games, including the first game of the 1956 World Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Eisenhower once said "When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing and as we sat there in the warmth of the summer afternoon on a river bank, we talked about what we wanted to do when we grew up. I told him that I wanted to be a real major league baseball player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he'd like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish."
9. President John F. Kennedy was a fan of his hometown Boston Red Sox, but never had a chance to see one of their games during his presidency. He did throw out the opening pitch of the Washington Senators season in 1961 and in 1962 at the new D.C. Stadium, as well as in 1963. He also attended the 1962 All-Star Game held in DC. Kennedy sat through every inning of every game he was able to attend during his presidency. At the All-Star game he said to Stan Musial "A couple of years ago, they told me I was too young to be President and you were too old to be playing baseball. But we fooled them."
10. Between his civil rights bill, medicare and the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson was only able to attend four games during his presidency, including an exhibition game for the opening of the Houston Astrodome on April 9, 1965. Johnson was supposed to throw out the first pitch at that game, but he arrived late.
11. President Richard Nixon attended 11 games during his presidency and at one of them he witnessed a triple play (on July 15, 1969. The triple play was pulled off by the Detroit Tigers against the Senators, but the Senators still won the game 7-3). Dick Young, a sportswriter for the New York Daily News, wrote of Nixon, "This isn't a guy that shows up at season openers to take bows and get his picture in the paper and has to have his secretary of state tell him where first base is. This man knows baseball."
12. President Gerald Ford only attended 2 games as President, including the 1976 All-Star Game, held in Philadelphia during the bicentennial year. Just before becoming President, Gerald Ford personally witnessed Hank Aaron hit career home run number 714 on April 4, 1974.
13. President Jimmy Carter only attended one game as President, that being the last game of the 1979 World Series, won by the Pittsburgh Pirates over the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore. He told Commissioner Bowie Kuhn that he preferred playing sports more than watching them. On October 30, 1995, Carter wrote an editorial for USA Today called "It's Time to Forgive Pete Rose."
14. President Ronald Reagan attended 4 games as President. On April 2, 1984 he threw out first pitch of the Baltimore Orioles home opener against the White Sox and then watched the game from the Orioles dugout. On September 30, 1988 he threw out the first pitch at a Cubs-Pirates game in Wrigley Field and joined Harry Caray in the broadcast booth.
15. President George H. W. Bush is the only president to play in a world series. (He was captain of the Yale baseball team that played in, but never won, the college world series in 1947.) As President he went to 10 games, including one with Queen Elizabeth II on May 15, 1991 in Baltimore. In the picture below, Bush is wearing his old first baseman's mitt from Yale, which he kept in his desk during his presidency.
16. President Bill Clinton attended 7 games as President and is the first president to throw out a first pitch from the pitcher's mound. He attended the Orioles game on September 6, 1995 at which Cal Ripken Jr. broke the iron man record by playing in his 2,131st consecutive game. He was also president at the game on April 15, 1997 at Shea Stadium at which Jackie Robinson's number 42 was retired for all of major league baseball.
17. As President, George W. Bush attended 9 MLB games, but these days the former president is a regular at Texas Rangers games. Bush is a former part-owner of the Rangers and was the managing general partner of the team from 1989 to 1994. On April 6, 2001 he threw out the first pitch at Miller Park in Milwaukee, and after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks he threw out first pitch in the October 30, 2001 World Series game between the Yankees and Diamondbacks and became first President to see a World Series game in Yankee Stadium. On April 3, 2006 he became the first sitting president to throw out first pitch on Opening Day in Cincinnati. On March 30, 2008 Bush threw out the first pitch at the first game in Nationals Park.
18. President Barack Obama has attended 3 games so far, including the 2009 All-Star Game held in St. Louis, and the opening game of the 2010 Washington Nationals season. President Obama is a Chicago White Sox fan. On March 22, 2016 he attended an exhibition game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban National Team played in Havana, Cuba. (The Rays won the game 4-1).
If you're like me and you're geeky about both major league baseball and presidential history, Baseball Almanac has this great website with all sorts of presidential baseball trivia. May I also recommend Baseball: The Presidents' Game by William Mead and Paul Dickson as a great collection of anecdotes.
If you're like me and are geeky about both Presidential history and baseball, then this post is for you. This being a nice summer Sunday and ideal for watching baseball (whether at the park or in the comfort of your own home), it seemed like a nice topic for this community today. I happened upon a series of pictures of Presidents throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a number of baseball games and thought they would be great to be the subject of a summer post.
1. On April 14, 1910 President William Howard Taft, all 300 plus pounds of him, became the first President to throw out a ceremonial first pitch in a game between the home town Washington Senators and the visiting Philadelphia Athletics. The Senators won the game 3-0. In his four year term Taft attended 14 games and threw out the opening pitch of the Senators' season twice. Of baseball, Taft said "The game of baseball is a clean, straight game, and it summons to its presence everybody who enjoys clean, straight athletics. It furnishes amusement to the thousands and thousands."
2. President Woodrow Wilson attended 11 games during his two terms. On October 9, 1915 he became the first President to attend a World Series game, in Philadelphia between the Phillies and the Boston Red Sox (who won the game 2-1). Wilson threw out the first pitch during game 2. During his freshman year at Davidson College he played on the college baseball team.
3. President Warren Harding died less than three years into his term, but he still managed to attend five games, and threw out the first pitch in the Senators' home opener every year. In 1920 then Senator Harding played in a charity baseball game in his hometown and actually injured his finger catching a hard hit ball.This picture was taken on April 12, 1922.
4. President Calvin Coolidge attended 10 games as president, including this one on April 24, 1928. On October 1, 1924, the Washington Senators won their very first American League pennant. Coolidge addressed the team on the White House lawn while nearly one-hundred thousand fans stood and watched. He said "They are a great band, these armored knights of the bat and ball. They are held up to high standard of honor on the field, which they have seldom betrayed. While baseball remains our national game, our national tastes will be on a higher level and our national ideals on a finer foundation. By bringing the baseball pennant to Washington you have made the National Capital more truly the center of worthy and honorable national aspirations."
5. President Herbert Hoover attended 9 games during his presidency and threw out the ceremonial first pitch to open the Washington Senators season each year of his term. Years later, as a retired president on August 13, 1960, an 86 year old Hoover threw out the first pitch at an old timers game in Yankee Stadium. Hoover briefly played for the Stanford University baseball team where he was, by his own admission, a "not-so-good shortstop". The team decided that his talents were better suited as manager of the team, and he once had to reminded former President Benjamin Harrison that he had forgotten to pay his admission to the game.
6. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt attended 11 games during his twelve plus years in office. (He had a depression and a war to deal with, and died very early into his four term.) He was severely affected by polio and required the assistance of his son James to stand during public occasions. In January of 1942, following the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour, Roosevelt wrote to baseball Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis suggesting that baseball continue in spite of the war.
7. President Harry Truman was the first southpaw president to throw out a ceremonial first pitch at an MLB Game. He went to 16 games, including a game 6 days after the surrender of Japan.
8. President Dwight Eisenhower played center field on his high school baseball team with his brother Edgar. When he entered West Point after high school he played junior varsity baseball with General Omar Bradley. As president he went to 13 games, including the first game of the 1956 World Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Eisenhower once said "When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing and as we sat there in the warmth of the summer afternoon on a river bank, we talked about what we wanted to do when we grew up. I told him that I wanted to be a real major league baseball player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he'd like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish."
9. President John F. Kennedy was a fan of his hometown Boston Red Sox, but never had a chance to see one of their games during his presidency. He did throw out the opening pitch of the Washington Senators season in 1961 and in 1962 at the new D.C. Stadium, as well as in 1963. He also attended the 1962 All-Star Game held in DC. Kennedy sat through every inning of every game he was able to attend during his presidency. At the All-Star game he said to Stan Musial "A couple of years ago, they told me I was too young to be President and you were too old to be playing baseball. But we fooled them."
10. Between his civil rights bill, medicare and the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson was only able to attend four games during his presidency, including an exhibition game for the opening of the Houston Astrodome on April 9, 1965. Johnson was supposed to throw out the first pitch at that game, but he arrived late.
11. President Richard Nixon attended 11 games during his presidency and at one of them he witnessed a triple play (on July 15, 1969. The triple play was pulled off by the Detroit Tigers against the Senators, but the Senators still won the game 7-3). Dick Young, a sportswriter for the New York Daily News, wrote of Nixon, "This isn't a guy that shows up at season openers to take bows and get his picture in the paper and has to have his secretary of state tell him where first base is. This man knows baseball."
12. President Gerald Ford only attended 2 games as President, including the 1976 All-Star Game, held in Philadelphia during the bicentennial year. Just before becoming President, Gerald Ford personally witnessed Hank Aaron hit career home run number 714 on April 4, 1974.
13. President Jimmy Carter only attended one game as President, that being the last game of the 1979 World Series, won by the Pittsburgh Pirates over the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore. He told Commissioner Bowie Kuhn that he preferred playing sports more than watching them. On October 30, 1995, Carter wrote an editorial for USA Today called "It's Time to Forgive Pete Rose."
14. President Ronald Reagan attended 4 games as President. On April 2, 1984 he threw out first pitch of the Baltimore Orioles home opener against the White Sox and then watched the game from the Orioles dugout. On September 30, 1988 he threw out the first pitch at a Cubs-Pirates game in Wrigley Field and joined Harry Caray in the broadcast booth.
15. President George H. W. Bush is the only president to play in a world series. (He was captain of the Yale baseball team that played in, but never won, the college world series in 1947.) As President he went to 10 games, including one with Queen Elizabeth II on May 15, 1991 in Baltimore. In the picture below, Bush is wearing his old first baseman's mitt from Yale, which he kept in his desk during his presidency.
16. President Bill Clinton attended 7 games as President and is the first president to throw out a first pitch from the pitcher's mound. He attended the Orioles game on September 6, 1995 at which Cal Ripken Jr. broke the iron man record by playing in his 2,131st consecutive game. He was also president at the game on April 15, 1997 at Shea Stadium at which Jackie Robinson's number 42 was retired for all of major league baseball.
17. As President, George W. Bush attended 9 MLB games, but these days the former president is a regular at Texas Rangers games. Bush is a former part-owner of the Rangers and was the managing general partner of the team from 1989 to 1994. On April 6, 2001 he threw out the first pitch at Miller Park in Milwaukee, and after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks he threw out first pitch in the October 30, 2001 World Series game between the Yankees and Diamondbacks and became first President to see a World Series game in Yankee Stadium. On April 3, 2006 he became the first sitting president to throw out first pitch on Opening Day in Cincinnati. On March 30, 2008 Bush threw out the first pitch at the first game in Nationals Park.
18. President Barack Obama has attended 3 games so far, including the 2009 All-Star Game held in St. Louis, and the opening game of the 2010 Washington Nationals season. President Obama is a Chicago White Sox fan. On March 22, 2016 he attended an exhibition game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban National Team played in Havana, Cuba. (The Rays won the game 4-1).
If you're like me and you're geeky about both major league baseball and presidential history, Baseball Almanac has this great website with all sorts of presidential baseball trivia. May I also recommend Baseball: The Presidents' Game by William Mead and Paul Dickson as a great collection of anecdotes.