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Thinking Baseball And Presidents Day

mlb.com

Government offices and banks were closed today for Presidents' Day. But the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in Cincinnati was open. Bill Rinehart of member station WVXU in Cincinnati paid a visit to the museum to learn the role presidents have played in the nation's pastime.

Although it's difficult to think of baseball with snow still on the ground, education manager Ken Freeman says American Presidents have had a lengthy connection with Major League Baseball. Freeman says Cincinnati native William Howard Taft was the first sitting President to attend an opening day game, and the first President to throw the opening pitch.

"Franklin Roosevelt flipped a telegraph switch in Washington DC in 1935 to turn on the lights at Crosley Field for the first night game in Major League Baseball history.  And you can go all the way up, at least in Cincinnati, to 2006 when George W. Bush threw out the first pitch at Great American Ballpark.  And then Nixon, as president in 1970, was here for the All-Stars game, and threw out the first pitch from the seats."

The first sitting President to attend a baseball game was Benjamin Harrison, from North Bend, Ohio.

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