President Trump Declines Invitation to Throw Out First Pitch

President Donald Trump declined an invitation to throw out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals game on Opening Day.

The man whose personal physician said would be, unequivocally, “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency” was invited to throw out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals game on Opening Day. The Nationals invited President Trump to throw out the first pitch against the Miami Marlins on Monday, April 3. Along with throwing out the first pitch, they hoped he might join Bob Carpenter and FP Santangelo in the announcer’s booth for an inning. Perhaps he could have been in the booth during the famous Mascots Presidents Race.

Unfortunately, according to the White House, Mr. Trump has a scheduling conflict and won’t be able to throw out the first pitch. No specifics were given as to what the conflict was, but White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer insists it has nothing to do with Russia, Russian salad dressing, Russian nesting dolls, or anyone named Vladimir, including Vladimir Guerrero.

As the Twitter post above explains, inviting the president to throw out the first pitch in Washington is a 100-plus year tradition. Way back on Opening Day in 1910, William Howard Taft became the first sitting president to throw out the first pitch. Taft may have been the first U.S. president to throw out the first pitch, but he wasn’t the first world leader to do so. Japanese Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu threw out the ceremonial first pitch when an American All-Star team toured Japan in 1908, two years before Taft’s first pitch.

Along with being the first president to throw a first pitch, William Howard Taft was also very likely the largest president we’ve ever had. His weight fluctuated during his adult life, but he reportedly weighed around 340 pounds when he left the White House. There are no known pictures of William Howard Taft in a baseball uniform, but it probably looked something like this:

Since Taft started the tradition, every successive president has thrown out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch. They weren’t all on Opening Day, though. Some presidents threw out first pitches at the All-Star Game or for the World Series. Probably the most emotional first pitch ever thrown by a president came roughly six weeks after the 9/11 attacks, when George W. Bush threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium.

The physical act of throwing out the first pitch has changed over time. For many years, the president would throw the first pitch from the stands. Sometimes they would throw to one specific play and other times to a group of players, who looked like they were playing the playground game Flyers Up. When they started to throw from the field, they would throw from the base of the pitcher’s mound. This changed in 1993, when Bill Clinton was the first president to successfully throw from atop the pitcher’s mound to the catcher.

It’s kind of a shame that Mr. Trump turned down the opportunity to show off his considerable baseball skill. In the book The Truth About Trump, by Michael D’Antonio, Mr. Trump talks about his athletic exploits in the early 1960s, when he attended the New York Military Academy. According to Mr. Trump, he was a tremendous baseball player.

"“I was always the best athlete. Something that nobody knew about me. …I was the best baseball player in New York when I was young. …But I also knew that it was very limited, because in those days you couldn’t even make a lot of money playing baseball. …Everybody wanted me to be a baseball player. But I was good in other sports too. I was good in wrestling, I was very good at football. I was always the best at sports.”"

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Unfortunately, we won’t be able to see this amazing athlete show off his blazing fastball. On the other hand, it’s probably better that he won’t be at the game. If three to five million fans showed up, the lines at the concession stands would be ridiculous.