Minutes after Joe Biden finished his victory speech in Wilmington, Del., on Saturday night, the Washington Nationals announced that they “look forward to hosting” the president-elect and having him throw the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day next year.
The Nationals, who sent a letter to Biden extending the invitation, open their 2021 campaign at home against the New York Mets on April 1.
We look forward to hosting President-Elect Biden on Opening Day of the 2021 season.@JoeBiden // #NATITUDE pic.twitter.com/n3YzL7olWA
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) November 8, 2020
William Howard Taft began the tradition of presidents throwing the first pitch in D.C. on Opening Day in 1910. Since then, every sitting president except Donald Trump has thrown at least one ceremonial pitch in Washington when the city had a major league team, though not always during his first year in office.
Citing a scheduling conflict, the White House declined the Nationals’ invitation for Trump to throw the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day in 2017. Had he attended, he might have caught a glimpse of the large “Impeach Trump” banner that protesters hung from the club level concourse after the game.
Trump attended — and was booed at — Game 5 of last year’s World Series at Nationals Park, but he did not throw the ceremonial first pitch. That honor instead belonged to chef and humanitarian José Andrés. For what would turn out to be Trump’s final Opening Day in office, the Nationals invited infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci to throw the ceremonial first pitch when they opened the shortened 2020 season as World Series champions in July.
Barack Obama was the most recent sitting president to throw a first pitch in Washington. He turned down an invitation to continue the tradition three months after his first inauguration in 2009, but he did the honors on Opening Day at Nationals Park the following year, donning a Nationals jacket and a Chicago White Sox cap for the occasion.
Biden, who played shortstop and center field as a Little Leaguer growing up in Scranton, Pa., has experience pitching on Opening Day. As the newly elected vice president, the right-hander threw the ceremonial first pitch to usher in the 2009 season at Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards while wearing a U.S. Army cap.
Might Biden, a proud Phillies fan, take the mound in D.C. wearing a Phillies cap, as he did during an interview with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel in March?
“This is not the way to win votes,” Kimmel, a Mets fan, joked at the time.
“But it’s the way to be able to sleep with my wife,” Biden said of future first lady Jill Biden, who left the campaign trail in the days leading up to the 2008 presidential election so she could see the Phillies clinch the World Series in person with her granddaughter. “She’s a Philly girl. If I weren’t into the Phillies, I’d be out of luck, man.”
Hey @Phillies, here’s to hoping we both win big this fall. Stay safe. #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/nGtdDVsrXv
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 23, 2020
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