Update, 3/31/17: The Nationals announced that ceremonial first pitches on Monday will be throw by five service members, one from each of the branches of the U.S. military.
The full schedule of opening day events includes a F/A-18E Super Hornets flyover by the U.S. Navy VFA-143 Pukin’ Dogs.
Original: We know he’s been practicing his golf game, but how good is President Donald Trump at throwing a baseball?
America isn’t going to find out next week. The Nationals say that Trump has declined the invitation to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at their season opener against the Marlins on Monday.
This morning, Politico’s newsletter said that the president was “in talks” to jumpstart the season. Here’s the from Playbook:
WE HOPE THIS IS TRUE — Playbook’s Palm Beach correspondent Luke Russert sends in this dispatch: PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP is in talks to throw out the first pitch at Nats Park on Opening Day. He also might spend an inning in the announcing booth with MASN. The Nats open the season next week against the Miami Marlins. Multiple White House aides did not reply to a request for comment. Here’s video of Trump throwing a football pretty well in 1992 http://bit.ly/2oc1fgO
Now, though, the Nats say that Trump has a scheduling conflict and will be unable to show us his fastball, though they did invite him. The team hasn’t announced who will take the mound instead.
Trump wouldn’t have been the first president to throw the ceremonial opening pitch for Washington’s team. George W. Bush took to the mound for the Nats’ first season in 2005 at RFK Stadium and then opened their then-new stadium in 2008. Barack Obama threw the ceremonial first pitch during the home opener in 2010.
The tradition goes back to 1910, when William Taft took part in opening day baseball ceremonies, throwing out a pitch for the first game between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics at what was then called National Park (also known as Griffith Stadium.) Since then, every president has thrown a pitch at either a season opener, an All-Star game, or during the World Series. (Some more accurately than others.)
Trump has already served up a slider for opening day at Fenway Park in 2006.
Now, though, Trump is the president, despite the scant support he received from the Washington region at the ballot box—setting him up for a deluge of boos. (Deadspin, for its part, said it would “heal the nation.”)
Of course, he’d join a storied tradition of politicians getting booed at baseball games. Bush’s pitch in 2008 was to “a mix of cheers and jeers,” according to AP. A pool report said Obama similarly “took the mound to a mix of boos and applause.” Our report from Nats Park when Obama pitched in 2010 found that being the current president had little to do with it: “During a video montage showing former presidents throwing Opening Day pitches, Grover Cleveland got a warm reception. However, every other president was booed.”
Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, received some pretty intense heckling when he threw the opening pitch last April for the Indians.
Rachel Kurzius