The kooky Presidents Race will continue this year, even as fans are currently barred from entering the Nats’ stadium.

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Abe, Tom, George, and Teddy will still race this year during the fourth inning of each of the 30 Washington Nationals regular-season home games, although they will run under a few pandemic-related changes and without an in-person audience for now.

That’s right, Nats fans: The beloved Presidents Race—the uniquely odd D.C. tradition in which four foam-eyed, big-headed ex-presidents run across the Nationals Park field—will continue to take place despite the coronavirus pandemic. But at least in the short term, the race will be pre-taped and happen outside the ballpark, the team confirmed to DCist Wednesday.

That goes for the Nats’ 2020 home opener against the New York Yankees Thursday. Fans will have to watch the Presidents Race on broadcast, as officials are currently prohibiting them from entering Major League Baseball stadiums to prevent COVID-19 from spreading. (Though the situation could change as the season progresses, individual stadium reopenings will largely depend on guidelines from local jurisdictions, and D.C.’s remain strict for sports events.)

The MLB’s operations manual for 2020 also says teams “may have their mascot in the ballpark if they choose, however under no circumstances are mascots permitted on the field of play or in any other Restricted Area on game days,” according to MLB.com.

The Washington Post first reported the Nats’ plans for the Presidents Race late Tuesday, noting that the format could change later this summer. Screech—the team’s bald-eagle mascot—won’t be capering around Nats Park this season either. On Tuesday, the bird showed off a super-sized version of the Nats’ 2019 World Series ring on Twitter.

The racing presidents first put foot to field 14 years ago, launching a kooky tradition that fans, players, and even a real-life president (Barack Obama) have embraced. While they’ve evolved since 2006, their original look was inspired by a 9-foot-tall Bette Midler puppet, according to Randy Carfagno, a costume designer who worked on the presidents and Screech.

Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, George Washington, and Teddy Roosevelt are the longest-running racers, but others—including Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, and William Taft—have joined them over the years. In 2017, there were even talks about Franklin D. Roosevelt becoming a “visiting” racing president, but the Nats said they decided not to proceed with him because of “logistical challenges and lack of enthusiasm from the Roosevelt family.”

For years, Teddy Roosevelt was the lovable loser of the bunch whose mishaps often prevented him from winning the race. (“The only two rules we had were don’t fall down and Teddy doesn’t win,” the race’s creator Josh Golden told DCist in 2018.) His travails led to national news stories, a White House statement, and even late Republican Sen. John McCain calling Roosevelt’s consistent losses a “vast left-wing conspiracy.” But that’s now changed: During the Nats’ 2019 regular season, Teddy won 38 races—the most of any racing president. (Then, the Nats won the World Series.)

The team will start their fan-less, delayed season 7 p.m. Thursday at Nats Park. To show support for the Black Lives Matter movement, the pitcher’s mound will feature a “Black Lives Matter | MLB stencil” and center field will have a black heart with “D.C.” written in the middle.

Before the game kicks off, the team will also raise the 2019 World Series Champions flag at the center field plaza. Nats superfan and top U.S. infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci will throw the ceremonial first pitch, while D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser will give the traditional “play ball” announcement.

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