Atlanta Daily World

President Eisenhower Opens
'55 Major League Flag
Race

BY PAT ROBINSON
NEW YORK (INS)
When President Eisenhower threw out the first ball at Monday's Washington-Baltimore baseball opener, he was carrying on a custom President William Howard Taft started 45 years ago

Taft, a red-hot baseball fan, was the first chief executive to lend his official presence to opening day in 1910

Thereafter, it became a tradition, to the delight of the nation's fans and the annual enrichment of the Washington club's coffers

Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt and Truman tried out their arms Truman was ambidextrous.

Wilson really knew baseball and kept score like a professional baseball writer, although we doubt that any writer ever kept his scorecard so neatly

Harding liked the game Even Coolidge, who knew little, if anything about the national pastime, seemed to enjoy it.

Hoover, of course, had played baseball To this day, he has a crooked finger, a memento of a game when he was playing shortstop for Stanford University

Roosevelt and Truman both enjoyed a day at the ball park.

Mr. Eisenhower, although he played baseball at West Point and even reputedly had a brief professional fling under another name makes no secret of the fact that he now prefers golf

He was criticized when he announced he would pass up the 1953 opener for a round of golf. As it turned out, however, the game was rained out and Ike made amends by tossing out the first ball when the opener finally was played a few days later

Last year, he showed up right on schedule for the traditional stint.

Opening days have been the occasion of some memorable baseball history It is considered an honor to get the opening game pitching assignment, and most managers usually lead with the aces of their mound staffs

When Taft threw out the first ball in 1910 he saw Walter Johnson in his prime

Although he was pitching for a club which was not much worse than Kansas City is today, the big train won 25 of the club's 66 victories that year and pitched 38 complete games

It was on opening day 15 years ago that young Bob Feller pitched the first of his three no-hit games for the Cleveland Indians His victims that day were the Chicago White Sox

One of the funniest stories about an inaugural involves Bobo Newsom the talkative and much-traveled righthander, who was pitching at the time for Washington

A grounder was hit to third base, forcing the third sacker to throw directly across the mound. Bobo forgot to duck, and the ball hit him on the head It was suggested that he retire from the game

'No sir' said the eccentric hurler

The President came to see Boby pitch and Bobo isn't going to let him down