“Baseball is our national pastime.” Calvin Coolidge was the president who put those words together. But the nation’s 30th...
“Baseball is our national pastime.” Calvin Coolidge was the president who put those words together. But the nation’s 30th president is hardly the Nation’s only chief executive to acclaim the game.
Baseball is woven deeply into the American identity, so much so that the sport plays a role in the life of even the Oval Office. Presidents have played baseball, cheered for baseball, and even saved baseball.
Abraham Lincoln played catch on the White House lawn with his son. William Howard Taft inaugurated the tradition of presidents throwing out the first pitch. George H.W. Bush captained Yale’s baseball team and played in the original College World Series. Bill Clinton tried to keep a strike from shutting down a season. George W. Bush rallied the nation after 9/11 by taking to the mound at Yankee Stadium before the third game of the 2001 World Series.
Throughout the 2015 season, baseball fans can learn more about the connection between a game considered our national pastime and America’s chief executives. Through October 4, which marks the end of the regular season, the George W. Bush Presidential Center is presenting Baseball: America’s Presidents, America’s Pastime. The special exhibit opens March 21 at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
During that same time, this blog will look at ways in which baseball mirrors the larger society. Civil rights. Immigration. The role of veterans. Times of crisis. Freedom movements. Women’s issues. The sport often has personified the changes and challenges in our nation and world.
As part of this discussion, we will speak with historians, baseball officials, writers and others who follow the game. We will keep the dialogue going throughout the season. This is a national game, after all, on many different levels.
