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Monday, April 2, 2007
Bush Skips Opening Day
A scheduling conflict kept President Bush, that lover of baseball, from throwing out a first pitch today as most Major League Baseball teams opened their seasons.
The conflict, in part, was football.
While the baseball season was opening around the nation (including not far away at Washington’s RFK Stadium), Bush was in the Rose Garden with a football team.
That’s correct. Mr. I-Wanted-to-Grow-Up-to-be-Willie-Mays was hanging around with football players on baseball’s opening day.
That’s the sports turncoat above with members of the Navy football team as he awarded them the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy as the best service academy team this past season.
The White House assures us the president hasn’t turned his back on baseball.
“He loves baseball,” says spokeswoman Dana Perino, adding that “scheduling reasons” prevented a presidential opening-day pitch this year. “I can assure you that if he gets a chance he will be tuning in to see some of the games.”
For the record, Bush opening pitched at big-league games in 2001 (Milwaukee), 2004 (St. Louis), 2005 (Washington) and 2006 (Cincinnati.) He also threw out the first pitch at a 2001 World Series game in New York.
But today, he was with a football team in the Rose Garden. That’s rose as in flower, not Pete.
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