European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 13, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse By boo Odem staff writer Mike infield chatter a raucous i rhubarb the Spray of tobacco juice Tow buzzing of the crowd the Happy tastes % hot dog and a Beer it All adds of in one thing baseball. %l�8pfte the tragic assassination of Dumartin Luther King jr., which brought a Monement of the traditional opening junes in Washington d.c., and Fig 5sau the season is under Way albeit Sut the presidential pitch to Start was tossed by vice president Hubert h. Humphrey up As a stand in for present son b. Johnson before a crowd of mobs fans As usual the Washington so dumped their bid to Watt the scr when the Minnesota twins handed them their sixth straight opening loss with a score of 2-0. And for the next six months upwards 0 27 million fans will Click the turn riles in the 20 major league of web 8tthan? Why Abner Doub is called our National spite professional Fly new and the american 67th, baseball is looking to for further japanese Are jumping and the sport has Lecont fac no. With the Young and the old of growth of baseball has taken effect in South America and Europe especially in Holland and Italy. So an other american game As basketball has is eventually destined to become world wide. Baseball took an upswing when the presidential bandwagon gave it a lift in the form of 300-Pound president William Howard Taft on april 14 1919. It was on this that the yearly ritual of the . President throwing out the first Ball of the season began. Ever president since has taken a fling at it. Ten presidents have thrown out the first Ball at the Washington senators Home openers on 44 occasions through1967, with vice presidents substituting nine times and lesser dignitaries Suchias adm. George Dewey and Gen. John j. Pershing filling in 14 times. Up Ike leads gop presidents with 4-3 hurling Kennedy chalked up a 1-2 Mark in his opener chores. Enough the 10 presidents were equally divided party Wise five democrats and five republicans. With the presidents present at openers the senators have won 23 said lost 21.the eternal feud of the two political parties has even swung to which own the Best won lost record on opening . Republican presidents hold an Edge witha 12-8 record to the democrats 11-13. Democrats republicans w. A w. L.0 Taft 4 harding4 Kenned Johnson s 4 s1 0 2 hoovers Eisenhower 22 31 4 u is 12 8 Only Woodrow Wilson and Taft maintained perfect records while the Only Imless president is Johnson 0-3.the main reason president Taft attended that 1910 opener and agreed to throwout the first Hajj was because of Washington s Walter big train Johnson one of the five greatest pitchers of All ume. Taft was a fan of Johnson Sas were so Many other legislators a Bill once was passed by the House known As the Johnson Bill. The reason was that every body wanted to go out to see sir Walter pitch. The word went around the House that if the representatives insisted on filibustering they would miss the big Iram. The measure was passed in two minutes. Every president since tuft has played baseball or has taken an inter a to u. Raft pitched for the Yale be Woodrow Wilson was a die hard an Warren Harding was a sportswriter before owning Bis paper in Mari on Ohio Herbert Hoover managed his saturday april 13, 1968 a president Johnson is in cellar with 0 for 3 history at presidential openers. College baseball team at Stanford an was a Yankees rooter. Franklin d. Roosevelt of All the presi dents was the extrovert about attend ing the openers. He wits not above bet Tina on the outcome and once said that a president saddled with those washing ton Ball clubs in his had to do some thing to take the sting off. Roosevelt led the list m appearances with eight and compiled a 4-4 Eisenhower knew his base Ball but liked Golf better. There was one opener when Ike was Down at is Golf House in Augusta da., to see the musters event and yet in a few rounds himself. The storm cry when it was announce that the president would miss the game echoed around the country. But the senators and Ike got a break it rained opening and the game was re scheduled. With his rain Check Ike had to Hustle Back to Washington to toss the first Ball. Truman liked baseball and leaned to Ward the old St. Louis Browns. John f. Kennedy preferred touch football but played some baseball during his har Vard Days. Johnson played first base in the sandlot and Semi pro circuits around his native Johnson City s tossing out of two balls be the stars and stripes came customary until last year when Johnson threw out three and the papers jokingly labelled it As presidential toss at the opener is a wonderful tradition and its perpetuation is vital to the prestige of baseball. It is a refreshing sight to see Ball player ordinarily bored by adulation they Gen Erate in their Small Corner of the world scrambling like kids for the presidential is one activity for which the Ball players Don t get paid but somehow they Don t seem to mind. It proves that even though some players make More Money than the president of the United states they still can t top him for class. Page u
