Donald Trump said Thursday that he plans to attend Sunday’s World Series game between the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros, but shrugged off the idea of throwing out the ceremonial ‘first pitch’ before the contest starts because it would require a bullet-proof vest.
‘I don’t know,’ he mused during an Oval Office ceremony. ‘They got to dress me up in a lot of heavy armor. I’ll look too heavy. I don’t like that.’
Trump was presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to auto racing legend Roger Penske.
The Nationals won the first two games of the best-of-seven series in Houston this week, making it possible that they could wrap up the championship in four games as they did in the National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
If they should sweep the World Series, there would be no game played on Sunday.
President Donald Trump says he will go to Game 5 of the World Series on Sunday but doesn’t plan to throw out the ceremonial ‘first pitch’ because body armor would maje him look fat
The Washington Nationals will play the Houston Astros Friday and Saturday in D.C. – and Sunday, if necessary – in the World Series. The Nationals lead the series 2-0
Teddy Roosevelt, one of the Nationals’ four presidential mascots – the others are Abe Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington – stood near Nationals Park on Thursday during a press conference
Washington, D.C. hasn’t hosted a World Series game since 1933
Donald Trump threw out the first pitch before the start of a 2006 game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees at Fenway Park
Washington, D.C. is the polar opposite of Trump Country, a place where the president won just 4.1 per cent of the vote in 2016. So there are other reasons he might stay in a luxury box instead of going on the field at Nationals Park.
A White House official conceded shortly after the ceremony that ‘no one here wants to hear POTUS booed.’
Fans may not notice Trump in the ballpark unless his face flashes on the centerfield Jumbotron, but his motorcade will likely snarl traffic before the most anticipated sports event in D.C.’s history.
‘I don’t care if he’s there,’ Nationals fan Geraldo Jimenez told DailyMail.com at a Washington restaurant on Thursday, ‘but maybe he can drop a few million to help us keep Stras and Zimmerman.’
Both pitcher Stephen Strasburg and first baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who was the team’s first draft pick fourteen years ago, will set off bidding wars in a matter of days when their contracts expire and they become free agents.
Presidents have turned Major League Baseball games into unifying and publicity-earning events for more than a century.
Bill Clinton threw out the first pitch at Oriole Park while he was president
The tradition of presidents participating in baseball spectacles goes back more than a century; Woodrow Wilson threw out the first pitch on opening day at a 1916 Washington Senators game
The favored Houston Astros lost both of their home games this week to the Nationals, who have won 8 postseason games in a row
Astros star Jose Altuve was shocked by a late Nationals surge in Game 2, which the visiting team won 12–3
William Howard Taft threw out the first pitch on opening day in 1910 at a Washington Senators game against the Philadelphia Athletics. Franklin Roosevelt did it in 1933, the last time the Fall Classic was played in the nation’s capital.
George W. Bush threw a confident strike before the first game of the 2001 World Series, played barely a month after the 9/11 terror attacks. Like his famed bullhorn speech atop the rubble of the World Trade Center, the televised moment was a unifying one for Americans.
Barack Obama didn’t attend any World Series games during his eight years as president, but threw out the first pitch before the 2009 All-Star game in St. Louis. His lazy arc managed – barely – to fulfill a promise that he wouldn’t bounce it.
He also went to a 2016 exhibition game in Havana between the Cuban National Team and the Tampa Bay Rays
On Friday night the Nationals chose a pair of former baseball players to execute the first-pitch ceremony. Pitcher Chad Cordero was the closer for the inaugural Washington Nationals team in 2005, and Brian Schneider was his catcher.
Schneider caught George W. Bush’s first pitch at RFK Stadium that year before the first home game played in Washington since 1971. Cordero got the save that day against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
One Nationals player uses the ‘Baby Shark’ toddler song as his walk-up music, turning the kiddie anthem into a crowd favorite in D.C.
Nationals fans do the ‘Baby Shark’ cheer whenever Gerardo Parra comes to bat
The Nats have a stadium of their own now, and a devoted following accustomed to boisterous and joyful fans who chant ‘MVP!’ when third baseman Anthony Rendon comes to the plate and sing the ‘Baby Shark’ song when outfielder Gerardo Parra strides up to bat.
Parra adopted the ear-worming children’s tune as his walk-up music in honor of his two-year-old daughter, turning it into an accidental anthem for the city’s baseball heroes.
Jimenez said he can’t afford to go to any of the home games this weekend. Online merchants are getting more than $1,000 for tickets, with standing room starting at $850.
Kate Wilson said she has ‘nosebleed seats’ for Game 4 on Saturday.
‘I can’t imagine the traffic nightmare if Trump has a motorcade down South Capitol Street,’ she said.
‘But I take the Metro, and not even Trump can mess with that.’
