Take Me Out to the Ballgame (Mr. President)

President Woodrow Wilson shows his form

In 1910, President William Howard Taft started a tradition that all his successors have followed since, with the lone exception of softball-loving Jimmy Carter. Sitting in an extra large stadium chair the Washington franchise had built especially for him, Taft, at 320 pounds America's heaviest president, threw out the first pitch to start the 1910 baseball season.

"One common thread that most of the 20th Century presidents have is a passion for baseball," baseball historian Mel Marmer says.

Marmer, wearing a Baseball Is Life sweatshirt, appeared at The Renwick Gallery here today on the official opening day of the 2012 baseball season to discuss the connection between the American presidency and the sport still known as America's national pastime.

Actually, President Ulysses S. Grant was the first president to become involved with the sport when he hosted the first professional baseball team the Cincinnati Red Stockings at the White House in 1869. In 1907, President Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to receive a 14-carat gold all-game season baseball pass. However, Marmer said the response of Roosevelt, an avid outdoors man, was "less than enthusiastic."

It remained for Taft to cement the connection between baseball and the presidency. Ironically, during much of the early 20th Century, the hometown team, the Washington Senators, were dreadful. They lost so many games that one baseball writer came up with the slogan, "Washington: First, in war, first in peace, and last in the American League."

Taft had another connection to baseball lore. In 1911, a young boy born was given the name William Howard Mays after the then president. He went on to have a son named William Howard Mays Jr. That son went on to become legendary baseball hall of fame center fielder Willie Mays, "The Say Hey Kid."

President Woodrow Wilson, who became the first president to attend a World Series game, started his college career as a center fielder for the Davidson College team. 

During the 1920s and 30s, baseball's biggest star was Babe Ruth. And, of course, the Babe had baseball tales in his background. When the Republicans wanted Ruth to endorse their presidential candidate because Ty Cobb was backing the Democratic choice, Babe reportedly replied: "Hell, no. I'm a Democrat" before asking "well, how much are they offering?" But the greatest Ruth/president story centers around the then-astounding pay offered the Yankee star in 1930. A reporter pointed out that Ruth's $80,000 annual salary would exceed President Herbert Hoover's salary by $10,000. "I know," Ruth said. "But I had a better year than Hoover."

When it comes to opening games and presidents, the record-holder is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR threw out the first pitch in 8 opening day games. "FDR was a true baseball fan," Marmer said. "It was said that he enjoyed going to a ball game as much as a kid on Christmas morning." In 1937, Roosevelt became the first president to throw out the first pitch at an All-Star game. During World War II, Roosevelt signed his "green light letter" which allowed the major leagues to continue operating to provide a diversion from the war.

President Harry Truman attended 16 home games for the Washington franchise. He also had the distinction of being America's first ambidextrous president, throwing out some first pitches right-handed and some left-handed.

Truman's successor Dwight Eisenhower once showed a preference for golf over baseball. He  planned on missing opening day to be the first president to attend the Master's Golf tournament. However, opening day was rained out and the president made it back to D.C. to perform his ceremonial duties. Eisenhower was the only American president to play baseball professionally. He played for a short time in the Kansas League under an assumed last name before he entered West Point.

President John Kennedy became the first president to preside over the dedication of a new baseball stadium with the 1962 ceremonies heralding the opening of DC Stadium. That stadium was renamed RFK Stadium in 1968 to memorialize Kennedy's younger brother Robert, who was assassinated that year while running for the office his brother had held until his own assassination in 1963.

Kennedy's successor Lyndon Baines Johnson missed throwing out the opening pitch for the 1968 baseball season. The usual festive atmosphere of opening day that year was darkened by the assassination of Martin Luther King just days before the scheduled season start. LBJ was just one of the 20,000 ticket holders who didn't make opening day that year in riot-damaged DC, which was then under guard of federal troops.

President Richard Nixon, before he was forced to resign his post in disgrace by the Watergate scandal, was one of America's most knowledgeable presidents about professional sports. For their part, sports leaders respected Nixon as a sports enthusiast. In 1962, after he lost a bid to become Governor of California, the owners of baseball's professional teams asked him to become the Commissioner of Baseball. Nixon refused. "But don't tell (my wife) Pat," Marmer said Nixon added. "She'll kill me for turning you down"

President Gerald Ford, a former University of Michigan football star who is widely believed to be the best athlete to ever hold the presidency, was in attendance on opening day in Cincinnati when Atlanta Braves star Hank Aaron hit his 714th home run to tie Babe Ruth's record that he had held for 40 years.

The string of opening day appearances by a president was broken by Ford's successor Jimmy Carter despite the fact that he often pitched competitive softball on the White House lawn. He never threw out an opening day pitch or attended a professional baseball game during the 4 years of his presidency.

Ronald Reagan had several connections to the game. He was the only president to ever broadcast telegraphic recreations of professional baseball games, which he did after college until he took off for Hollywood in 1937. In one of his film roles there, Reagan portrayed baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander. Thus, Alexander became the only professional baseball player to ever be named after a president and have an actor who was to become president play him in a movie. Reagan also became the first president to throw out the ceremonial first pitch from the pitcher's mound.

The only president to ever play in the college World Series was Reagan's successor George H. G. Bush, who was the first baseman and captain on his Yale University baseball team. "I'm sure that he was the only president who kept his first baseman's glove in his White House desk," Marmer said.

Bush's son George W. Bush became only the second son of a president to preside in the Oval office. (The first was John Quincy Adams, the son of America's second president John Adams). "When he was young, he dreamed of following in the footsteps of Willie Mays," Marmer said. But instead of starring in center field, the younger Bush became president of the Texas Rangers professional baseball team prior to winning election to the nation's highest office. Bush also starred in one of the most powerful moments in the long history between presidents and baseball, when he threw out the first pitch in New York for a World Series that came just weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

President Obama keeps the tradition alive

For his part, current President Barack Obama has kept the baseball tradition alive, although his first sports love is basketball. "He makes no secret about it. He's a Chicago White Sox fan," Marmer said.

Ironically, despite all the baseball in their duties, no sitting president has ever visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. "Both Clinton and Bush have been there, but not while they were president," Marmer said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Following his talk, Marmer held a quiz about baseball opening days and records. And I was one of 3 winners. I won by answering the question: who was the only pitcher in baseball history to throw back-to-back no-hitters? The answer: Johnny Vander Meer of the Cincinnati Reds. And my prize? A baseball containing the pictures of the presidents and 25 replicas of their signatures. See, I knew  those baseball cards and old issues of the Sporting News would come in handy one day.