Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump will not make a ceremonial first pitch next Monday when the Washington Nationals open their Major League Baseball campaign at home against Miami, the team said Tuesday.
Politico, a political news website, had reported Trump was in talks to make the appearance and might spend an inning in the booth with the television announcing crew for the afternoon contest.
“President Trump will not be joining us on opening day due to a scheduling conflict,” the team announced.
There might have been boos for Trump had he taken the mound. A Gallup Poll released Sunday showed Trump’s job approval rating fell to a new low of only 36 percent and he took only 4.1 percent of Washington votes in last November’s election.
For more than a century, US Presidents have made the opening toss to launch the campaign of “America’s pastime” and both Barack Obama in 2010 and George W. Bush in 2008 hurled ceremonial opening pitches at Nationals Park.
The tradition began with William Howard Taft in 1910 when he threw out the first pitch for the Washington Senators. In all, 13 US Presidents have made the ceremonial throw from team’s from the nation’s capital over the years.
F.P. Santangelo, a television analyst for the Nationals, posted an Instagram photo on Monday from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.
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