President's Pitch Means Baseball's Back
April 2, 2006 — -- "He did it with his good, trusty right arm, and the virgin sphere scudded across the diamond, true as a die to the pitcher's box, where Walter Johnson gathered it in."
April 2, 2006 — That was a local newspaper's account of President William Howard Taft throwing out the first pitch on April 14, 1910, as the Philadelphia Athletics took on the Washington Senators on baseball's opening day.
Back then, there were no Secret Service snipers on the roof, no bomb-sniffing dogs in the stands, and no bulletproof vest under Taft's suit. He was simply asked to toss the ball from his seat in the stands to future Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson, who stood by home plate.
That toss started a tradition that has carried on through the past 106 years. Though Major League Baseball's 2006 season actually begins tonight when the Cleveland Indians visit the Chicago White Sox -- the World Series champion -- President Bush will throw out the ceremonial opening day first pitch at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati on Monday as the Chicago Cubs face the Cincinnati Reds.
Ohio University history professor Charles Alexander, a baseball historian and author of "Our Game: An American Baseball History," believes that when Taft threw out the first pitch, a bond was created.
"I don't see much relationship between baseball and the presidency until Taft, although the famous Chicago White Stockings of the 1880s did meet Grover Cleveland in the White House during his first term (1885-1889)," Alexander said. "Taft established the custom of throwing out the first ball of the season, always at the American League ballpark in D.C. Wilson carried it on, as did Harding, Coolidge and on down the line."
One can research the archives of the Baseball Hall of Fame (www.baseballhalloffame.org) and find numerous tales linking the oval office to the baseball diamond.
Presidents George Washington and John Adams played all types of ball-and-stick games that were early variations of baseball.
