President Donald Trump will be making an appearance at Yankee Stadium very soon. To follow in Dr. Anthony Fauci’s footsteps, Trump said he will be throwing out the first pitch at a New York Yankees game on Aug. 15. This will be the first time he will throw out the first pitch of a baseball game, which has been a longstanding tradition for presidents.
According to CNN, Trump talked during a White House briefing and Yankees’ president Randy Levine “asked me to throw out the first pitch” at Yankee Stadium. Trump said he accepted the offer and then asked “How’s the crowd going to be?” Trump said this shortly before Fauci threw out the first pitch at the Nationals-Yankees game at Nationals Park in Washington. Fauci’s throw was not one he would like to remember, so the pressure for Trump to succeed is very high.
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Trump is the only president to not have thrown out the first pitch at a Major League Baseball game while in office. The first president to do it was William Howard Taft in 1910 and the tradition has gone on ever since. Barack Obama was the last president to throw out the first pitch, which was in 2010, the 100th anniversary of the first Presidential Opening Day ceremonial first pitch. Normally, presidents throw out the first pitch on Opening Day, the All-Star Game or the World Series. There was talk of Trump throwing out the first pitch of the World Series last year. That didn’t happen, but Trump did attend a World Series game and was greeted by boos.
“It’ll be loud for Trump but every president gets booed: both Bushes, Reagan, Nixon. When Americans pay for their ticket, most of them buy into the great American tradition to boo whomever they want,” author Curtis Smith said at the time — when crowds were still attending baseball games sans pandemic — via KALB. “He should embrace it: So what if the elites boo you? Think of how it plays with your voters elsewhere in the country, thinking ‘There they go again, booing our guy.’ Use it!” Baseball made its return on Thursday night after being delayed for four months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Each team will play 60 games, and for the time being, no fans will be allowed to attend games.
