Presidential First Pitches: An American Tradition

Baseball is America's national pastime. So naturally the country's presidents have had a close relationship to the game.

Abraham Lincoln had a baseball field, called the White Lot, built on the White House grounds. Chester A. Arthur was the first Chief Executive to welcome a professional team to the White House when the Cleveland Forest Cities from the National Association stopped by on April 13, 1883. And on June 6, 1892, Benjamin Harrison became the first sitting president to attend a Major League game.

But the closest relationship between America's presidents and its national game is the first pitch. William Howard Taft threw out the first presidential first pitch on April 14, 1910, in the first MLB game of the season, between the Washington Senators and Philadelphia Athletics. (Washington won, 3-0.) Taft was a huge baseball fan, attending 14 games during his four years in the White House. Legend has it he created the seventh-inning stretch when he stood up in the middle of the seventh inning during one of those games.

What's not in doubt, though, is that Taft created a first-pitch tradition that has been kept alive by every president who followed him.

Check out a slideshow of more than 100 years of presidential first pitches below, and pick up a few factoids about America's presidents' love of baseball along the way!

President Taft inaugurated the presidential first pitch when he threw out the first ball on April 14, 1910, to open a game between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics. (Washington won, 3-0.) He attended 14 games as President, and not just in Washington. He also watched two in Pittsburgh, one in Chicago, three in St. Louis, and one in Cincinnati. "The game of baseball is a clean, straight game, and it summons to its presence everybody who enjoys clean, straight athletics," Taft said. "It furnishes amusement to the thousands and thousands."

President Wilson threw out three first pitches and attended a total of 11 games as president, 10 in Washington and one in Philadelphia. He was became the first president to attend a World Series game on October 10, 1915, a 2-1 Boston Red Sox win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Wilson played baseball as a freshman at Davidson College. And despite having a presidential pass from MLB to go to games, he never used it. Instead, he payed for the games he attended.

President Harding threw out three first pitches and attended a total of five games, four in Washington and one in New York. Harding was apparently a great baseball scorer and was a minor league team owner in Marion, Ohio.

President Coolidge tossed three first pitches, including two at a double-header, and attended a total of 10 games, all in Washington. First Lady Grace Coolidge was an expert scorer, and by all accounts a much bigger fan of baseball than her husband. "[Mrs. Coolidge] knew a lot more about baseball than he did," columnist Shirley Povich wrote, "but so did everybody else."

President Hoover threw four first pitches and attended a total of nine games, six in Washington and three in Philadelphia. Hoover played shortstop as a kid, and was a lifelong baseball fan, calling it "the greatest of all team sports." He even complained — like fans do today — about there not being enough scoring in the game. "I want more runs in baseball itself," Hoover said. "When you were raised on a sandlot, where the scores ran twenty-three to sixty-one, you yearn for something more than a five to two score."

President Roosevelt threw a whopping 10 first pitches — more than any other president in history — and attended a total of 11 games, 10 in Washington and one in New York. On July 7, 1937, he became the first president to attend an All-Star Game. FDR was another big fan of the game. And, like Hoover, thought baseball was best when it was exciting. "I'm the kind of fan who wants to get plenty of action for my money," he said. "I get the biggest kick out of the biggest score - a game in which the hitters pole the ball into the far corners of the field, the outfielders scramble and men run the bases."

President Truman, a southpaw, threw out eight first pitches — nine if you count the one he threw right-handed — and attended a total 16 games, all in Washington. He was the first president to throw a left-handed first pitch, and the first to attend a night game on August 17, 1948. "May the sun never set on American baseball," Truman once said.

President Eisenhower threw out seven first pitches and attended 13 games, 12 in Washington and one in Brooklyn. Before becoming President, Ike was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in World War II. Yet missing the cut for his college baseball team was a sore point. "Not making the baseball team at West Point was one of the greatest disappointments of my life, maybe my greatest." Here's another good Eisenhower quote: "You cannot hit a home run by bunting. You have to step up there and take a cut at the ball. Never be more scared of the enemy than you think he is of you."

President Kennedy threw out three first pitches and attended four games total, all in Washington, including the 1962 All-Star Game.

President Johnson threw three first pitches and attended four games total. One of those, on April 9, 1965, was an exhibition game in Houston that opened the Astrodome.

President Nixon threw three first pitches and attended 11 games: eight in Washington, one in Cincinnati, and two in Anaheim. Nixon was a huge baseball fan, saying once that never leaves a game before the last pitch "because in baseball, as in life and especially politics, you never know what will happen." He was also a political animal: Before occupying the Oval Office, he was a Senator then Eisenhower's Vice President. And yet, he said, "I don't know a lot about politics, but I do know a lot about baseball." Nixon was such a baseball nut MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn gave him a "Baseball's Number 1 Fan" trophy.

President Ford attended and threw out first pitches at two games — one in Arlington and one in Philadelphia. But he tossed a total of three pitches, throwing right-handed then left-handed to open the 1976 All-Star Game. The only president never elected (he was appointed Vice President after Spiro Agnew stepped down, then took over after Nixon resigned), Ford played football before entering politics. Yet "I had a life-long ambition to be a professional baseball player, but nobody would sign me." The voters also rejected him, electing Jimmy Carter in 1976.

President Carter only attended one game while in office, Game 7 of the 1979 World Series in Baltimore. He was more of a softball fan.

President Reagan threw out three first pitches and attended a total of four games, three in Baltimore and one in Chicago. Before becoming president, Reagan was an actor. One of his roles was ballplayer Grover Cleveland Alexander in the 1952 film "The Winning Team."

President Bush threw out eight first pitches and attended a total of 10 games: six in Baltimore, one in Anaheim, one in Arlington, Texas, one in San Diego, and one in Toronto. On April 10, 1990, he became the first American president to throw out a first pitch at a game in Canada. Forty-One (as Bush is called by his son, George W. Bush, the 43rd president) is a huge baseball fan. He was the captain of his team at Yale, which played in the 1947 College World Series. And after leaving office, he and his wife, Barbara, have thrown out more first pitches and stayed close to the game.

President Clinton threw three first pitches and attended seven games — three in Baltimore, and one each in Cleveland, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco — including the first game at Cleveland's Jacobs Field, the game Jackie Robinson's #42 was retired, and the night Cal Ripken, Jr., broke Lou Gherig's consecutive-game record. That was also the first time both a sitting president and vice president attended the same game outside Washington. Clinton also has some bragging rights: He was the first president to throw a first pitch from the mound to the catcher's mitt.

President Bush threw seven first pitches and attended a total of nine games —four in Washington and one each in Milwaukee, Colorado, New York, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. Since leaving office, he has thrown out three more first pitches, all in Arlington, Texas. Bush might be the most baseball-crazy president in American history. (Sorry, Nixon!) As a kid, he played Little League, making him the first Little Leaguer to become president. And before turning to politics, he was the Texas Rangers' managing general partner from 1989 to 1994.

President Obama has thrown out two first pitches and attended a total of three games (so far), two in Washington and the 2009 All-Star Game in St. Louis. Obama, a die-hard Chicago White Sox fan, tossed the first pitch at Nationals opening day in 2010. He walked to the mound in a Nats jacket, but before he pitched he pulled out a White Sox hat and wore it as he threw — just in case anyone doubted his allegiance to the Sox!

The presidential first pitch is so important to the ceremonial role of the office that even our fake presidents get in on the action! Actor Martin Sheen played President Jed Bartlet on the TV show "The West Wing," and in one episode he throws out the first pitch at a Baltimore Orioles game.

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Thanks to Baseball Almanac for all the great presidential baseball info!

Photo: Mark Kauffman for Sports Illustrated