The "Biggest Baseball Fan At 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue! Story

It was an ordinary day.  Wednesday Evening, October 30th and the Washington Nationals had just won the 2019 World Series.  For those not involved in athletic endeavors, being the World Series Champions is the ultimate award a baseball player can achieve in his lifetime.  And, the fact that the team that won the series played their home games a few blocks away from the White House in Washington D.C. made it even more rewarding.  This year's team is the 8th major league franchise to be based in D.C. and the first since 1971.  It is now the first Washington baseball team to ever win the World Series.  The current club was founded in 1969 as the Montreal Expos and after playing poorly for years, was moved to Washington, D.C. in 2005 and re-named the Nationals.  The team's overall first pick in the 2009 Major League Baseball draft, Stephen Strasburg, was selected on Wednesday evening as the 2019 World Series Most Valuable Player.  No sport is more closely tied to the American presidency than baseball with one of Wasington's first baseball fields being located practically in the President's backyard.  

President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge at
a baseball game in 1924.

A few of the biggest fans who have resided at 1600 Pennsyl- vania Avenue were both Calvin and First Lady Grace Coolidge.  Seems Grace was by far the most knowledge- able and enthusiastic fan.  The Senators manager, Bucky Harris, reported that Grace was "the most rabid baseball fan he ever knew in the White House.  When Coach Harris was married in 1926 both the President and First Lady attended the wedding.  Grace actually kept a scorecard during every game she attended.  And, if she happened to be on the Presidential yacht, Mayflower, she listened to the game on radio station WRC.  In 1924 the Senators played in their first World Series with pitching great Walter Johnson on the rooster.  The Coolidges joined other fans to buy Johnson a Lincoln limousine as a gift of appreciation.  

President Calvin Coolidge signs a baseball for Hall of Fame
pitcher Walter Johnson as John's Senators teammates look on.

When Senator's catcher Muddy Ruel crossed home plate with the winning run of the seventh and deciding game on October 10, Washington D.C. exploded with joy.  Grace jumped up and down upon seeing Walter Johnson after the game.  The president and his wife were part of the team's 1925 season when they again made it to the World Series, but didn't win this time.  Baseball and the American presidency have been intertwined since the Coolidge's time in office.  Franklin D. Roosevelt's limousine drove onto the field ahead of the 1933 World Series, the last time the nation's capital hosted the World Series.  Harry S. Truman tossed out the first pitch from the stands of a regular season game in August of 1945, just days after the end of WWII, giving Americans a sense that normalcy was returning after years of global conflict.  

President Donald Trump stands in a private box listening
to the many boos given to him when his photo was shown
on the stadium's large screen.

President George W. Bush wore a bulletproof vest under his jacket when he threw a perfect strike from the Yankee Stadium mound during the 2001 World Series, not 10 miles from where the World Trade Center had been attacked a month earlier.  President Donald Trump, who attended games regularly in New York, was going to attend a game this year, but not to throw out the first pitch.  The Nationals gave that honor to celebrity chef Jose Andres whose humanitarian work has been widely acclaimed.  President Trump is not a favorite of those living in D.C. and when he did arrive at the stadium, he was loudly booed.  Trump is the only president since William Howard Taft in 1910 not to throw out a first pitch at a major league baseball game.  Baseball and the White House seem to have a bond more so than any other sport in the USA.  Could it be because baseball is known as Americn'a Game!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.