Mr. President
Copyright © 2008 by Hillerich & Bradsby Co. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without prior written consent of the author, except as provided by the United States of America copyright law. Published by Elevate, Charleston, South Carolina. Member of Advantage Media Group. ELEVATE is a registered trademark and the Elevate colophon is a trademark of Advantage Media Group, Inc. Printed in South Korea First Printing: June 2008 ISBN: 978-1-60194-020-9
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2
Mr. President A CENTURY OF BASEBALLS SIGNED BY U.S. PRESIDENTS
Dan Cohen
™
Acknowledgments This book is the result of two years of collaborative effort among many people. First and foremost, I would like to thank James W. Ancel, whose collection of presidential baseball memorabilia graces the pages of this book. It has been a pleasure to work with Jim and his staff, and without him there would be no exhibition and no book. Jim’s collection was put together piece by piece over a number of years and is a unique treasure. It attests to an extreme devotion and passion for both baseball and presidential history. I am honored to have worked with this material. I would also like to specially thank Anne Jewell, Executive Director of Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, who helped make this project a reality in numerous ways. Her encouragement and enthusiasm was an inspiration in itself. And as always, there are no words strong enough to thank my wife Amy and my daughter Lila, whose support through this project was invaluable. To thank everyone else who helped in the realization of this book would be impossible, although I would like to mention the following people and organizations who have contributed in many ways throughout the writing of this book: Gerald Bazer, Suzanne Bowman, Kim Boyd, Marshall Cohen, Jamie Franklin, John Hillerich and Hillerich & Bradsby Co., Ken Horn, David Hunt, Whitney Pfister, Mary Frances Lauter, Deana Lockman, Steve Lyverse, Rick Redman, Lee Samson, Society of American Baseball Researchers, David Smith, Larry Smith, John Thorn, David Vincent, and Althea Walker. Play Ball, Mr. President: A Century of Baseballs Signed by U.S. Presidents runs from July 4 through November 16, 2008 at Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory. 4
“I have been invited by eleven presidents to the White House and I have enjoyed every visit. It’s nice to know that the game of baseball has a friend in the Oval Office.” --Stan Musial Hall of Fame outfielder and former Chair of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
The game of baseball and the American presidency have a long and storied history, starting even before there was a president. Years before he became the nation’s first leader, George Washington played a bat and ball game in Revolutionary War camps.1 By 1860, political cartoonists were using baseball as a backdrop to depict Abraham Lincoln’s election victory, and as president, playing baseball was one of Lincoln’s favorite recreations.2 On June 6, 1892, President Benjamin Harrison became the first president to attend a Major League game, as he watched the hometown Washington Senators lose to the Cincinnati Reds seven to four in an eleven-inning game. In the twentieth century, baseball became a veritable presidential pastime, and it is inconceivable that the office could now be held by someone who is without first-hand knowledge of the game. Partaking in baseball ceremonies gives the president a break from more serious duties, and is a time of joy and reminiscing. Presidents have been seen smiling, eating hot dogs, and smoking cigars at the ballfield. In the early twentieth century, presidents even started signing baseballs. It is on these baseballs, whether signed by fanatical rooters like William Taft and Richard Nixon, or more tentative supporters like Teddy Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge, where the presidency has literally left its mark on the game. Each of these balls was signed by the most powerful person in America. These signatures, whether elegant or sloppy, attest to a specific moment in time where 6
the head of the nation took a moment away from war, economics, or politics, and thought of baseball. Transformed through this process, the balls are no longer mundane pieces of sporting equipment, but deďŹ ning links between two great American traditions: baseball and the presidency. While each president, Republican or Democrat, has his own baseball story to tell, they all held a ball in their hands, and signed between the seams. Play Ball! 7
Teddy
Roosevelt 1901-1909 T
heodore Roosevelt was not baseball’s greatest fan and did not attend any games as president. He referred to the sport as “mollycoddle” and did not like the fact that one had to pay to see the games.3 Even so, he left a grand imprint on the history of the presidency and the national pastime. On Memorial Day in 1918, the twenty-sixth president of the United States of America signed this baseball, becoming the first in a line of eighteen consecutive presidents to sign his name on the leather cover of a baseball.
“a
mollycoddle
game”
“With all of his love of outdoor life and sports, Mr. Roosevelt did not go within the ball grounds during his seven years in the White House.” --Washington Post (1909)
This ball originates from Detroit, where ex-president Roosevelt signed it at the request of Frank Navin, the owner of the Detroit Tigers. Fittingly, it is an American League ball – a league that not only included Navin’s Tigers, but started in 1901 when Roosevelt was president. The ball is signed “T. Roosevelt, May 30th, 1918.” That same day, Navin donated the ball to an auction in sup-
and greats such as Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, and Cy Young graced the diamond. While Roosevelt himself did not follow baseball, his sons Kermit and Quentin both played ball. They even convinced their father to invite the New York baseball signed by President Highlanders (who would become the Yankees) and the Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s term was an ex- Cleveland Naps (who would citing period for baseball as the become the Indians) to visit the World Series was established White House in 1908.5
port of Detroit’s Navy recruiting fund. Richard H. Collins, a close friend of Roosevelt’s and ex-President of the Cadillac division of General Motors, won the ball with a bid of $1,500, which today is equivalent to $20,600.4 It is the only known
“Quentin really seems to be getting on pretty well with his baseball. In each of the last two games he made a base hit and a run.” - - Te d d y R o o s e v e lt, a b o u t h i s s o n
William H.
Taft
1909-1913
U
nlike his predecessor, William Howard Taft was a great baseball fan, and attended over a dozen games as president. Spalding’s 1911 Official Base Ball Guide describes the president telling his friends that baseball “is a pastime worth every man’s while and advises them to banish the blues by going to a ball game.”6 Taft was indeed the first president to throw out the season’s ceremonial first pitch on April 14, 1910. Less than a month after this historic
“I love the game when there is plenty of slugging.” - - Wi l l i a m H . Ta f t
event, Taft attended a game in Pittsburgh on May 2, where eight thousand fans crowded at the gate to see the president enter the park. He not only threw out the first pitch at this game, but signed the ball for the Pirates’ Hall of Fame manager Fred Clarke. The inscription on this ball reads “For Fred Clarke, Best Wishes, Wm H Taft.” The
up to stretch his large body and, thinking he was leaving, the crowd rose with him.7
ball also bears the stamp of National League President T.J. Lynch, who was then in his first year of office. It was at this game, during which Taft insisted on seats where he could see the great Honus Wagner play shortstop, that the president gave new life to a baseball tradition. In the middle of the seventh inning, the three-hundred-pound president stood
While the tradition of a seventh-inning stretch can be documented as early as 1869, Taft’s act gave it a presidential seal of approval and enshrined the stretch in popular baseball culture.8 Taft subsequently sat back down and saw the Pirates break the game open in the bottom of the seventh, eventually beating the Chicago Cubs five to two.
“The game was interrupted by the cheering, which spread in a great wave from the grandstand to the bleachers as the crowd recognized [President Taft].” - - Wa s h i n g t o n Po s t, A p r i l ,
Woodrow
Wilson T
1913-1921
homas Woodrow Wilson’s passion for baseball began in his youth, when he scribbled baseball drawings in his notebooks, and it grew throughout his life.9 Not only would he throw out the first pitch of three separate seasons, he was the first president to attend a World Series. In 1916, he elegantly signed the ball used for his season-opening pitch. This incredible ball contains not only the president’s signature and the signature stamp of American League President Ban Johnson, but the
“[Wilson] usually stayed right to the end of the games and I would say he knew baseball better than the average fan.”- - A l S c h a c h t : P i t c h e r, Wa s h i n g t o n S e n at o r s
Mr. Owens), the place (Washington D.C.), and the final score (Washington 12, New York 4). The historic sphere notably links Wilson to Walter “Big Train” Johnson, the two of whom would cross paths on the baseball field a record eleven times.10 date (April 20, 1916), teams playing (New York and Washington), and the pitchers and catchers for each team (Keating and Numaker, and Johnson and Williams). It also includes the umpires (Mr. Connoly and
While Wilson was an avid baseball man, and played on a team for Davidson College, the sport faced many trials during his presidency. As America’s involvement in World War I escalated in 1918, Wilson de-
clared baseball a non-essential industry and included baseball players in the military draft. Although baseball continued despite the loss of personnel, the 1918 season was shortened by thirty days. The 1919 season got back in full swing after the war ended, but turned out to be one of the most scandalous in baseball history, with members of the Chicago White Sox working in cahoots with gamblers to intentionally lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. No comment on this tragic event is recorded from Wilson, but it was surely a blow to the president, as it was to millions of other fans of the game.
“Wilson would be a good player if he weren’t so damned lazy.” - - Wi l s o n’s Ba s e b a l l C o a c h at Dav i d s o n C o l l e g e
Warren G.
Harding
1921-1923
W
arren Gamaliel Harding upped the ante on the president’s involvement in the game of baseball. Not only did he play the game as a boy, but he even owned part of his hometown baseball team in Marion, Ohio. Like Wilson before him, Harding threw out the first ball of the season upon becoming president. He signed and dated this ball “Warren G. Harding, April 13/21”. Baseball was beginning to recover from the black mark of the 1919 World Series, and it was good to see the president at the stadium, even if the Washington
“I never saw a game without taking sides.” - - Wa r r e n G . H a r d i n g
Senators lost to the Boston Red Sox six to three. Harding’s time as president saw the birth of the lively “rabbit ball” style of play. The strategies of bunting and aggressive baserunning became outdated as the home run became baseball’s ultimate weapon. The chief proponent of this new style was none other than George Herman “Babe” Ruth, who packed Yankee Stadium with fans eager to see his circuit blasts. Harding befriended Ruth and
invited the slugger to the White House at least seven times.11 It is perhaps surprising to note that Harding, whose presidency coincided with the birth of the home-run era, witnessed the
first shutout thrown at Yankee Stadium on April 24, 1923.12 Tragically, the president died of a heart attack just three months after this game, cutting his term of office short.
“I distinctly remember the last game President Harding witnessed...as we shook hands he said, just as informally as possible, ‘Well, Walter, I came out to root for Washington.’” - - Wa lt e r Jo h n s o n : P i t c h e r, Wa s h i n g t o n S e n at o r s
Calvin
Coolidge T
1923-1929
aking over for Harding in the third year of his term, John Calvin Coolidge was no rookie when it came to baseball and the presidency. While it was Harding who threw out the first pitch of the 1921 season, former president Wilson and Vice President Coolidge were also at the park. Coolidge took time during the game to sign and date this baseball, leaving us two presidential mementos from the same day. Although 1921 was not the Senators’ year (they finished eighteen games behind the Yankees), Coolidge presided over
“Baseball is our national game.” - - C a lv i n C o o l i d g e
cord every play of the major league games she attended.13
the golden age of baseball in Washington, D.C. In 1924 the Senators won their one and only World Series title, and followed it by winning a second American League pennant in 1925. In 1924, Coolidge became the first and only president to open up the
World Series with a ceremonial pitch. While Coolidge enjoyed a day at the park, his wife Grace was a baseball fanatic. Not only did she sometimes stay at the park after the president left, she was her college’s official scorer, and would re-
She was even known to pick up a bat and join in amateur games now and then.14 It was she who kept the president informed of the action on the field. Coolidge himself seems to have enjoyed baseball as much as a political tool as a game. In the heat of his reelection campaign in 1924, Coolidge used the fact that he was attending the World Series to garner favor with baseball fans and attract votes.15 Perhaps Coolidge’s term as president would not have been renewed had the Senators lost to the New York Giants.
“She [Grace Coolidge] knew a lot more about baseball than he did, but so did everybody else.” - - C o lu m n i s t S h i r l e y Po v i c h
Herbert
Hoover H
1929-1933
erbert Clark Hoover began his presidency less than a year before the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. He was subsequently the first president to be booed at a ballgame. Baseball itself, however, did not suffer as much as other enterprises during the depression. Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is that in 1930 Babe Ruth was making
“Next to religion, baseball has furnished a greater impact on American life than any other institution.” - - H e r b e rt H o o v e r
Walter Johnson of the Senators hands President Hoover a baseball. $80,000 while Hoover made only $75,000. When asked about the disparity, Ruth famously responded “I had a better year than Hoover.”16 While Hoover might not have been a fan favorite during the lean years after 1929, he maintained a passion for
baseball that was still evident when, at the age of eighty-six, he threw out the first pitch at an Old-Timers’ game at Yankee Stadium in 1960. Hoover played shortstop as a child and saw baseball as second only to religion in the American culture. He strongly
encouraged children to play ball, believing that “through baseball we channel boys’ desire for exercise and let off their explosive violence without letting them get into police court.”17 It is fitting, therefore, that he signed this Babe Ruth League baseball for a young fan in 1955. The Babe Ruth League was founded in 1951 as an officially organized league designed for children.18 Hoover signed the ball neatly on the sweet spot in between the seams in response to a request from a young fan. His passion for youth leagues led him to offer signed balls like this one as prizes to top youth teams.
“I want more runs in baseball itself. 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.” - - H e r b e rt H o o v e r
Franklin D.
Roosevelt 1933-1945 F
ranklin Delano Roosevelt held the office of president for a record twelve years. He led the nation through the Great Depression and most of World War II, and through it all he remained a baseball fanatic. He threw out more ceremonial first pitches (eleven) than any other president, and was a familiar face at the ballpark.19 In 1937, he became the first president to attend, and throw out the first pitch, at an AllStar game. Perhaps the most important thing Roosevelt did for baseball was issue his famous “Green Light” letter in
“Roosevelt enjoys himself at a ball game as much as a kid on Christmas morning.” - - w r i t e r H a r o l d Bu r r
1942, encouraging organized baseball to continue through World War II.20 More dubiously received at the time was Roosevelt’s encouragement of night games, which some baseball purists saw as sullying the traditional game played in natural light.21 The president correctly predicted that night games would make baseball more available to the public, who typically worked during the day. When the first Major League night game was played in Cincinnati on June 24, 1935, Roosevelt, using a telegraph line, switched the first light on from the White House.22 Like presidents before
him, Roosevelt signed many baseballs, including this one that a fan tried to preserve with a varnish. The ball is signed “Franklin D Roosevelt,” and bears the stamp of American League President William Harridge, whose presidency (19311959) coincided with what many consider the golden age of baseball. Under Harridge’s watch, Roosevelt witnessed the historic 1941 season, in which Joe DiMaggio smacked a base hit in 56 consecutive games and Ted Williams hit .406, two feats that have not been repeated, and may never be matched again.
“If I didn’t have to hobble up those steps in front of all those people, I’d be out at that ball park every day.” - - Fr a n k l i n D . R o o s e v e lt
Harry S.
Truman
1945-1953
H
arry S. Truman attended sixteen games as president, which is a record that still stands today. He was the first president to attend a night game, and the first president to throw out first pitches with both his right and left hands.23 While his ambidexterity might have helped him with ceremonial first pitches, as a child he did not play ball for fear he would break his glasses. First Lady Bess Truman, however, was described as playing a “crackerjack third base,” and the president repeatedly spoke of her athletic ability with awe.24
“I couldn’t see well enough to play when I was a boy, so they made me an umpire.” - - H a r ry S . Tr u m a n
As the country began to prosper after World War II, baseball took a major step towards integrating African Americans, starting in 1947 with Jackie Robinson. This was the same year that the military was officially desegregated. Children continued to play the game and Truman signed many balls
not only for elite fans, but for organizations such as the Babe Ruth League. He signed this ball “Harry S. Truman” in blue ink. The “S” does not stand for any particular name, but is a compromise between his two grandfathers’ names: Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young.25
“May the sun never set on American baseball.” - - H a r ry S . Tr u m a n
Dwight D.
Eisenhower
1953-1961
D
wight David Eisenhower grew up idolizing Honus Wagner. One of his favorite movies was Angels in the Outfield, which came out in 1951 and not only starred Paul Douglas and Janet Leigh, but featured cameos by Joe DiMaggio and Ty Cobb. While Ike never realized his dream of making it to the big leagues, he was involved in a collegiate baseball controversy. In 1945, as Ike was riding a wave of popularity due to his military leadership (he planned the successful Allied invasion of Normandy), he admitted that he played a
“You cannot hit a home run by bunting. You have to step up there and take a cut at the ball.” - - D w i g h t D . E i s e n h ow e r
was thereafter silent on this episode of his life. Eisenhower was, not surprisingly, a great baseball fan. As president, Eisenhower invited the Little League championship team from Mexico to the White House, and wrote a letter to Don Larsen after his perfect game in the 1956 World Series.27 few games of professional baseball under the assumed name of Wilson in the Kansas State League before he enrolled at West Point. But Eisenhower played on West Point’s baseball and football teams, so he had broken the NCAA rule that barred professional athletes
from entering college athletics. The penalty for breaking this rule was expulsion. To make matters worse, Ike was quoted as saying “I went into baseball deliberately to make money, and with no idea of making it a career.”26 While nothing serious came of this scandal, Ike
He once said “the more baseball the better, it is a healthful sport and develops team play and initiative, plus an independent attitude.”28 He signed balls for friends and fans, including this American League ball which he signed in 1965, four years after stepping down as president.
“I wasn’t a very good center fielder.” -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F.
Kennedy
1961-1963
P
resident for just three years, John Fitzgerald Kennedy will forever be remembered as a youthful president in the prime of his life. Mementos of his time as president are among the most coveted of presidential artifacts. Baseballs signed by Kennedy are rare, and this is the only known ball signed “John F. Kennedy”. His unique signature is beautifully preserved on the ball’s sweet spot. It is fitting that the American League president whose stamp is on the ball is none other than Joe Cronin who, as player/manager, led both the
“A couple of years ago, they told me I was too young to be President and you were too old to be playing baseball. But we fooled them.” - - J o h n F. K e n n e d y t o S ta n M u s i a l at t h e A l l - S ta r g a m e
Washington Senators and Kennedy’s beloved Boston Red Sox to first place finishes. Kennedy, who faced challenges as serious as the Cuban Missile Crisis and expanding civil rights, nevertheless maintained an unofficial “Undersecretary of Baseball,” whose job was to keep the president apprised of the latest baseball news.29 In 1961, Kennedy was the last president to throw out a ceremonial pitch at Washington’s Griffith Stadium, and he tossed the firstever pitch at D.C. Stadium in 1962. This stadium, which
was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in 1969 in honor of the president’s brother, was the first of a new wave of ballparks that were built as multisport arenas. In 1963, Kennedy even went so far as to play
manager when he pressed the Senators to start rookie Tom Brown at first.30 The Senators complied, but Brown struck out three times in the game, spoiling Kennedy’s reputation as a shrewd baseball mind.
“I think that both baseball and the country will endure.” - - J o h n F. K e n n e d y
Lyndon B.
Johnson
1963-1969
L
yndon Baines Johnson became president after Kennedy’s tragic death in 1963. While Johnson had little time for baseball during his time in office, focusing his energies on civil rights and the Vietnam War, he did become the first president to dedicate a new ballpark. In 1965, the native Texan who saw the U.S. space program reach new heights, inaugurated baseball’s first indoor stadium, the Houston Astrodome. Johnson showed up late to the exhibition game and left early, but remarked that the stadium was “massive, beauti-
“They booed Ted Williams too, remember? They’ll say about me I knocked the ball over the fence, but they don’t like the way he stands at the plate.” - - L y n d o n B . J o h n s o n
ful, and it will be a very great asset.”31 One of Johnson’s first baseball-related moves as president was to appoint Hall of Famer Stan Musial to chair the President’s Council on Physical Fitness in 1964. Musial had decided to hang up his cleats after more than twenty years on the field, and Johnson felt that he would add not only a sportsman’s knowhow to the program, but a famous face as well. Johnson also
continued the presidential tradition of throwing out the season’s first pitch. In 1965, Johnson threw this ball to Senators’ pitcher Steve Ridzik, who then had the president sign it. Unfortunately, this was one of only three first pitches that Johnson would throw. Tragic events such as the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and increased discontent about the Vietnam War caused Johnson to miss subsequent opening days.
“We cheer for the Senators, we pray for the Senators, and we hope that the Supreme Court does not declare that unconstitutional.” --Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard M.
Nixon
1969-1974
A
merica would have had to look somewhere else for a president if Richard Milhouse Nixon had achieved his dream of becoming a sportswriter, or if he had accepted either the position as the Baseball Players’ Association representative or the appointment as Major League Baseball’s commissioner, both of which were offered to him in 1965. 32 Nixon had the sharpest baseball mind of any president, twice releasing informed lists of his all-time favorite players, which were widely published and discussed in the sporting press.33
“I don’t know a lot about politics, but I do know a lot about baseball.” - - R i c h a r d N i xo n
While Nixon’s presidency was ignominiously cut short by the Watergate scandal, his legacy as a baseball sage remains intact. As president, he attended eleven games and often stayed through all nine innings. In 1973 Nixon, a California native, became the first president
to throw out a ceremonial opening pitch on the West Coast, as he tossed a strike at the California Angels’ home opener. During Nixon’s presidency, baseball witnessed extraordinary events from the Miracle Mets winning the World Series in 1969, to Hank Aaron surpassing Babe
Ruth as the all-time home run king in 1974. Although Nixon resigned shortly after this historic event, he remained an avid baseball fan, attending games and signing baseballs, such as this one, for fans. He released his final list of baseball greats in 1992, and died two years later.
“This isn’t a guy that shows up at season openers to take bows and get his picture in the paper and has to have his secretary of state tell him where first base is. This man knows baseball.”
- - S p o rt s w r i t e r D i c k Yo u n g
Gerald R.
Ford
1974-1977
W
hen Gerald Rudolph Ford took over the presidency, baseball was not at the top of his list of priorities. Watergate had rocked the nation and it was time to mend the relationship between the American public and the White House. While Ford set out to regain the public’s trust in the presidency, he focused his baseball energy on an often overlooked group of baseball players: girls. Four months after taking office, Ford signed a bill mandating that girls were allowed to participate in official Little League games.34 Previously,
“I had a life-long ambition to be a professional baseball player, but nobody would sign me.” -- Gerald Ford
Ford had been a great fan of his hometown’s All-American Girls Professional Baseball team, the Grand Rapids Chicks, and the point was not lost on him that gals could play ball. Although Ford was more
of a football player, and was offered professional contracts by both the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions, he was a lifelong Tigers fan and ranked Al Kaline as his favorite sports figure.35 While he only
attended two games as president, he made a splash at the 1976 All-Star game by throwing out first pitches with both his left and right hands, just as Truman had done twentysix years earlier. As vice president, however, Ford was present at the monumental game when Hank Aaron hit his 714th home run, tying Babe Ruth’s record. In the Senate, Ford was a fixture on the Republican baseball team, once hitting an inside-the-park grand slam. At some point in the 1990s, Ford, a lifelong American League fan, elegantly signed this National League ball on the sweet spot for an admiring fan.
“In baseball when they say you’re out, you’re out. It’s the same way in politics.” --Gerald Ford
Jimmy
Carter
1977-1981
J
ames Earl Carter was not a big baseball fan, although he does have fond memories of seeing Minor League games played in Americus, Georgia. He even saw the 1935 Cardinals play a spring exhibition game there, although he might have been turned off when third baseman Pepper Martin angrily ran the tenyear-old future president off the field.36 As president, Carter did not throw out any ceremonial first pitches, and only attended one game. He did, however, bring the sport of softball to the spotlight, and his competitive nature rose to
“All the Secret Service guys were terrified that if they messed up [during softball games] they might end up stationed in Ohio.” -- Anonymous
President Carter with Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn at the 1979 World Series. the forefront when he berated secret service members for misplaying balls on his presidential team.37 His most prominent baseball moment came
on baseball’s greatest stage: the World Series. In 1979, Carter attended Game Seven of the World Series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles. Before the game, Carter toured the Orioles’ clubhouse and the always verbose Rick Dempsey quipped “next time, get your ass here before the seventh game.”38 After the Orioles lost the game, some players attributed the loss to the presence of the president.
Thirteen years later, however, Carter proved that he could be a jinx to the Pirates as well. The ex-president was at Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta for Game Seven of the 1992 National League Playoffs. The Pirates were facing Carter’s hometown Braves, and the game went to the wire, with Francisco Cabrera driving in Sid Bream to win the game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Lost in most accounts of this dramatic moment is the fact that Carter became swept up with emotion and jumped over the fence to congratulate the Braves’ players, who were now on their way to the World Series.39
“Get off the field, boy!”
- - C a r d i n a l s’ Th i r d Ba s e m a n P e p p e r M a rt i n t o J i m m y C a rt e r i n
Ronald
Reagan
1981-1989
R
onald Wilson Reagan had a long history with baseball before becoming president. As an up-and-coming radio personality in the 1930s, he broadcast the Cubs’ games in Des Moines, Iowa. As a Hollywood star in 1952 he portrayed Grover Cleveland Alexander in a movie titled The Winning Team. If Reagan hadn’t already endeared himself to baseball fans across the country, his act of inviting thirty-two retired baseball stars to a White House luncheon three months after taking his oath certainly sealed the deal. Among the guests
“I wouldn’t even complain if a stray ball came through the Oval Office window now and then.” --Ronald Reagan
was Joe DiMaggio, who remarked that “the president enjoyed this visit even more than we did.”41 While Reagan’s appearances in public were curtailed after an assassination attempt in 1981, he did attend a number of games and threw out two ceremonial season openers in Baltimore, even sitting in the dugout throughout the course of one of the games. Reagan’s security was so tight, it was rare that fans got the president to sign baseballs. One ball he did sign, however, comes out of the 1987 World Series, which the Minnesota Twins won over the St. Louis Cardinals. Special World Series baseballs were first produced in 1978, and are a collector’s item.42 This ball was signed by Reagan on the sweet spot, and is a rare artifact.
“Baseball is our national pastime, that is if you discount political campaigning.” -- Ronald Reagan
George H.W.
Bush
1989-1993
G
eorge Herbert Walker Bush was the captain of Yale’s baseball team, which reached the College World Series in 1947 and 1948. Although they lost both times, the Yale team was a force to be reckoned with, and Bush was known as “a real fancy Dan” with his glove at first base.43 In fact, after one especially good game in North Carolina, a Major League scout even interviewed the future president. The most exciting moment of his college career, however, was when Babe Ruth came to Yale to present his papers to the college. As team captain,
“Baseball is just the great American pastime.” - - G e o r g e H . W. Bu s h
Bush received a signed copy of the memoirs on the ballfield. Years later, the president remembered this moment, stating that “just being next to him [Ruth] was so inspiring, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”44 Bush liked to throw out ceremonial first pitches and even once asked Nolan Ryan for pointers on how to toss a strike.45 He was also the first president to throw out the ceremonial opener in Canada when he and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney threw simultaneous pitches at the 1990 Toronto
Blue Jays’ opener. Bush remains a copious signer of baseballs, and even once signed this ball for Joe DiMaggio, inscrib-
ing it “To Joe DiMaggio, with admiration from yet another fan.”
“Once, after an especially strong day at bat in a game at Raleigh, North Carolina, I was 3 for 5 with a double and triple, and a scout approached me as I left the field. That was the first and last nibble I ever got from the pros.” - - G E O R G E H . W. B U S H
Bill
Clinton
1993-2001
W
illiam Jefferson Clinton grew up a St. Louis Cardinals fan in Arkansas. When he married Illinois native Hillary Rodham in 1975, however, he was convinced to switch his loyalties to the Cardinals’ arch-rival, the Chicago Cubs. While this turn did not endear him to Cardinals stalwarts, his attempt to mediate between players and owners during the 1994 strike, albeit unsuccessful, helped keep baseball fans on the president’s side. The 1994 season had actually started well for Clinton, who threw out the first pitch at the
“I have done all I could to change this situation. Clearly they are not capable of settling this strike without an umpire.” -- Bill Clinton
inaugural game at Jacobs Field in Cleveland, where he signed this specially marked ball from the event. When baseball resumed in 1995, Clinton did not make it to Opening Day, although both he and Vice President Al Gore were in attendance on September 6, 1995 when Cal Ripken Jr. surpassed Lou Gehrig’s consecutive game record. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton made baseball history when she threw out the season opener at Chicago’s Wrigley Field in 1994. This is the only time that a first lady has been accorded this honor. The Cubs, however, couldn’t oblige their high-profile guest, losing to the New York Mets twelve to eight.
“No matter where you go in America, sooner or later there will be a patch of green, a patch of dirt, and a home plate.” 46 -- Bill Clinton
George W.
Bush
2001-2009
G
eorge Walker Bush is the first president to have owned part of a Major League baseball team. In fact, the franchise he owned, the Texas Rangers, started as an expansion team in Washington D.C. in 1960, and moved to Arlington in 1972.47 Although the Rangers never made it to the postseason in the years Bush was co-managing owner (1989-1994), the team did open a new ballpark. Also during these years, Rangers’ pitcher Nolan Ryan struck out his five thousandth batter and pitched his seventh no-hitter, both of which are un-
“One of the great things about living here [in the White House] is that you don’t have to sign up for a baseball fantasy camp to meet your heroes. It turns out, they come here.” - - G e o r g e W. Bu s h
“I never dreamed about being President, I wanted to be Willie Mays.” -- George W. Bush
matched feats. Bush’s long association with baseball goes back to his Little League days. In fact, he is the first president to play Little League ball. While he has not had as much time for baseball as he would like during his presidency due to terrorist attacks and wars in the Middle East, he witnessed baseball’s return to Washington, D.C. in
2005. That year Bush became the first president to throw out the opening pitch in Washington since Nixon did the honors in 1969. In 2001, he became the first president to see a World Series game in Yankee Stadium. Bush is also a great collector of baseball memorabilia, with his own collection of over 250 signed balls from players and celebrities.48
“I sat by his side during some winning and many losing baseball seasons. But George never loses sight of home plate.” - - Fi r s t L a d y L a u r a Bu s h
Baseball has firmly established itself as the National Pastime. Future leaders of the nation are as likely to be found on the baseball field as they are discussing political science in debate class. The bond between baseball and the presidency has been cemented over the past century. While both sides have occasionally used each other for public relations (baseball to secure its place as the national sport, and the presidency to score political points with sports fans), the relationship is rooted in a deep love for the game. A baseball season doesn’t seem complete anymore without the president starting off the show. The history of these two great institutions of baseball and the presidency will remain intertwined, if only for the fleeting moments it takes to put pen to cowhide.
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Notes 1. William B. Mead and Paul Dickson, Baseball: The Presidents’ Game (New York: Walker and Company, 1997), 7. The most recent history of baseball and its eighteenth-century incarnations is David Block’s Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005). 2. Mead and Dickson, The Presidents’ Game, 9. 3. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/prz_qtr.shtml 4. http://www.bls.gov/bls/inflation.htm 5. Mead and Dickson, 18. In 1883, Chester Arthur was the first president to host a Major League team (Cleveland’s Forest Citys) at the White House. James C. Roberts, Hardball on the Hill: Baseball Stories from Our Nation’s Capitol (Chicago: Triumph, 2001), 7. 6. Mead and Dickson, 25. 7. Dennis DeValeria and Jeanne Burke DeValeria, Honus Wagner: A Biography (New York: Henry Holt and Company), 207. 8. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/7th_inning_stretch.shtml 9. Mead and Dickson, 31. 10. Ibid, 201 11. http://www. baseball-almanac.com/prz_qwh.shtml 12. Fittingly, while the Yankees shut out the Senators, Babe Ruth obliged his presidential guest by smashing one of his signature home runs. 13. Mead and Dickson, 51. 14. http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/gc30.html 15. Mead and Dickson, 47. 16. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/prz_qhh.shtml 17. Ibid. 18. The Babe Ruth League was originally named the Little Bigger League and was designed for boys thirteen to fifteen years old. In 1954 Claire Ruth, Babe Ruth’s widow, gave the organization permission to change its name to the Babe Ruth League. For more information on the league’s genesis and its mission see http://www.baberuthleague.org/side-indexes/history-main. html. 19. Mead and Dickson, 76. Roosevelt actually wanted to go to more games, but the logistics and security involved in transporting the president, who suffered from polio, caused him to limit his ballpark appearances. 20. While Roosevelt’s “Green Light” letter is now seen as a landmark presidential vote of confidence for the sport of baseball, it did receive some negative feedback at the time. Many citizens wrote contrary “Red Light” letters to Roosevelt urging him to stop baseball during the war. For a synopsis of this situation and a reprint of the “Green Light” letter in its entirety, as well as one “Red Light” letter, see Mead and Dickson, 77-79. 21. http://www.crosley-field.com/FNG/index.html 22. Ibid. 23. Truman’s ambidextrous feat was repeated by Gerald Ford at the 1976 All-Star game, when Ford threw an opening pitch from his right hand to National League catcher Johnny Bench, and tossed on with his left hand to American League catcher Carlton Fisk. Mead and Dickson, 195. 24. Mead and Dickson, 86-89. 25. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/speriod.html 26. Mead and Dickson, 95-100.
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27. In addition to his letter to Larsen, Eisenhower wrote a letter to Don Newcombe, the defeated Brooklyn Dodgers pitching ace, in which he wrote, “I, for one, was pulling for you.” Mead and Dickson, 104. 28. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/prz_qde.shtml 29. Mead and Dickson, 118. 30. Ibid, 120. 31. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/prz_qlj.shtml 32. Mead and Dickson, 133-137. 33. For reprints of these lists see http://www.baseball-almanac.com/prz_rna1.shtml and http://baseball-almanac.com/prz_ rna2.shtml. 34. When the Little League charter was first signed in 1964 by President Johnson, it specified that Little League was exclusively for boys. 35. http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/grf/grffacts.asp 36. Jimmy Carter, An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), 123. 37. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/prz_qjc.shtml 38. Ibid. 39. Mead and Dickson, 158. 40. Carter, An Hour Before Daylight, 123. 41. Mead and Dickson, 170. 42. http://www.americansportscollectibles.com/rawlingsworldseriesbaseballs.html 43. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/prz_qgb.shtml 44. Brian Kilmeade, The Games Do Count: America’s Best and Brightest on the Power of Sports (New York: Harper Collins, 2004), 48. 45. Mead and Dickson, 178. 46. Bill Clinton, “Radio Address” (October 21, 1995). 47. In 1960 the original Washington Senators moved to Minnesota where they became the Minnesota Twins. That same year, the American League agreed to let an expansion team start in Washington, D.C. Confusingly, this new team was called the Washington Senators. It was this second franchise that moved to Arlington and became the Rangers. 48. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/prz_qgwb.shtml All quotes (except where indicated) from http://www.baseball-almanac.com
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Photo Credits: All objects and images are from the James W. Ancel collection except: Back cover: Š Hillerich & Bradsby Co. P. 7 and 9: Library of Congress P. 29 and 33: MLB Photos / Getty Images P. 35: Focus on Sport / Getty Images P. 37 and 39: Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images P. 41: Getty Images P. 43: Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory Archives
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