The Washington Nationals made their pitch to President-elect Joe Biden.
Shortly after Biden addressed the nation for the first time since winning the 2020 presidential election Saturday, the Nationals invited him to throw out the first pitch on Opening Day of the 2021 season.
“We look forward to hosting President-elect Biden on Opening Day of the 2021 season,” the team wrote on Twitter. “We’re excited to continue the long-standing tradition of sitting Presidents throwing out the first pitch at the home of the national pastime in our nation’s capital.”
President Trump will become the second president to not throw out a first pitch at an MLB game since Howard Taft started the tradition in 1910. The other was Jimmy Carter.
In January, Trump said he had accepted an invitation from the Yankees to throw out the first pitch at a game on Aug. 15 — but it reportedly came as a surprise to the Yankees and ultimately never came to fruition.
Trump’s office was reportedly looking into a first pitch at Nationals Park in 2017, but he later turned the team down citing a scheduling issue. Trump, a self-proclaimed “great baseball fan,” attended Game 5 of the 2019 World Series at Nationals Park, but he did not throw the first pitch. He was loudly booed when he was later shown on the jumbotron.
Biden threw out the Opening Day first pitch as vice president in 2009 in Baltimore when the Orioles hosted the Yankees.