Seeing the President of the United States throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game has become a bit of an American tradition, so this report doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Per Politico, President Donald Trump “is in talks” to throw out the first pitch at Nationals Park on opening day. The report also says that President Trump might spend an inning in the MASN broadcast booth as part of the deal.
The Nationals open at 1:05 p.m. ET against the Marlins this coming Monday. So Trump’s pitch would happen around 1:00 and would likely be picked up by MLB Network for a national audience.
Nevermind, though, as a few hours after the initial report, the White House declined the invitation.
FYI here's the statement from the Nats about Trump not doing the first pitch pic.twitter.com/hkiILrlE7P
— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) March 28, 2017
The last time a sitting president threw out a ceremonial first pitch came in 2010, when Barack Obama did so at Nationals Park on opening day.
Also, Trump has thrown out a first pitch before. He did so in 2006 at Fenway Park:
Declining an invitation to throw out the first pitch on Monday doesn’t mean Trump will never throw out a ceremonial first pitch again. I’m not sure this bodes well, though.