Balking at the First Pitch

Source: WP

Bush's Skipping of Opening Day May Perpetuate a Ritual's Slow Decline

(snip)

President Bush kept up the tradition in 2005, celebrating baseball's return to the nation's capital after a 33-season absence. But he missed last year's home opener -- and he'll miss today's, too, when the Nationals host the Florida Marlins at 1:05 p.m. Except for when the world was at war, only two other presidents, Woodrow Wilson and Richard M. Nixon, missed Opening Day ceremonies two years in a row. And Wilson had suffered a stroke.

What gives?

"Oh, yes, he was invited," said Bush spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore. She said the president, an avid baseball fan and former part owner of the Texas Rangers, would love to be there. But "it's not possible with his schedule. He's got various meetings during the day, a meeting earlier in the morning. . . . It just wasn't going to work out."

With Bush's approval ratings stuck below 40 percent in recent polls, Lawrimore was asked whether the president feared he'd get booed. "No," she replied. "Certainly not."

You might have seen this mentioned in the paper recently, that Bush wouldn't be coming to the home opener. It was the last item in a little roundup story from Nats spring training camp. No one thought it was a big deal.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR2007040101262.html

Why ruin a perfectly good first game with all that BOOING!!!!

What a fuckin' baby.

Didn't he take some other people out to the mound, just so he wouldn't be booed?

He gave his press conference, announcing he'd veto the Senate war budget bill, with a phalanx of vets behind him. Freakin' coward.

Meeting One:
8:30 am - 10:30 am - The Honorable Herb Age from Amsterdam

Meeting Two:

11:00 am - 1:00 pm - Mr. James Beam from Kentucky

Meeting Three:

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm - Mr. Doo Bage from Jamaica

Meeting Four:

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm - Sir Ko Kane from Columbia

Meeting Five:

4:00 pm - 4:45 pm - Mr. James "Jack" Daniels from Tennessee

Meeting Six:

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm - Miss Caline from Texas

Meeting Seven:

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm - Dinner with Laura and the Grey Goose Society

Meeting Eight:

8:30 pm - - Bed

Hey He's got a FULL day!

May I humbly remind you of that spiritual meeting he had with CHIEF THUNDERBIRD of the APPLE BOONE tribe and that partaking of the elixir from the STRAWBERRY HILL band to commemorate the first sunday in April...:eyes:

This a daily standing meeting with these "Gentleman" ??????

Stay away from the pretzels during the "meetings"!!!

Sorry little bastard...

Yeah, baseball ain't what it used to be, but publicity is something no normal pol would pass up.


He just ain't going because he's a lame duck with an approval rating around 29% who has nothing to gain by going.

It's not like Opening Day is a surprise to him. He knows exactly when it is. The schedule would have accommodated throwing the first pitch if he wasn't afraid to appear in front of a real crowd rather than a cardboard cutout of an audience...or a military crowd ordered to behave.

and was soundly booed:

"Vice President Cheney , tapped to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at yesterday's Nationals home opener, drew boisterous boos from the moment he stepped on the field until he jogged off. The derisive greeting was surprisingly loud and long, given the bipartisan nature of our national pastime, and drowned out a smattering of applause reported from the upper decks."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041101921.html

In 2004, Cheney showed up at a Yankee game and when his pic from the stands went up on the Jumbotron, the stadium erupted in boos. I saw that game on tv; it was rather amusing.

http://www.politicalwire.com/archives/2004/06/30/yankees_fans_boo_cheney.html

Who sits in the upper decks?

:kick::kick::kick:

who have actually benefited from this mis-administration.

"We chickenhawk republicons never do anything that requires courage."

- Commander AWOL

Opening Day is unpopular so the president isn't participating? Uh, turn it around, fools!

Put him in the middle of 50,000 baseball fans and probably half will despise the man. 25,000 booing fans wouldn't do much for the Chimp's self esteem, much less his public image.

is this an omen?

Woodrow Wilson had a stroke?

Nobody goes to Opening Day anymore; the stadium's too crowded.

He goes to parties, attends every single fundraiser, plays golf, drinks, and does lines.

War, what war?

I'm watching the Giants home opener right now. If that monkey asshole dared show up around here, the boos would be heard all the way to D.C.

Hockey is the new hotness...

GO PENS!!!

Pucks going too fast...

Small area of play....

guys hitting each other...

It has nothing on an elegant game like baseball!

:)