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President opens season with Nationals
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- A hundred years after President William Howard Taft started a baseball tradition with a low ceremonial first pitch, President Barack Obama went in the other direction Monday, sailing a high, wide toss at the Washington Nationals' home opener against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Just as Taft's toss forced pitcher Walter Johnson to make an athletic play, Obama's required Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman to lunge to prevent a wild pitch.
Barack Obama
![](http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2010/0405/mlb_a_obama01_400.jpg)
AP Photo/Evan VucciPresident Obama delivers the season-opening pitch at Monday's Washington Nationals game.
"I was a little disappointed with the pitch. It was high and outside," Obama said during a stint in the booth during the Nationals' television broadcast, joking that he was going for an intentional walk. "Fortunately, Zimmerman has a tall reach."
The president suggested his accuracy would have improved with a longer outing.
"If I had a whole inning, I'm telling you, I would have cleaned up," he said.
Zimmerman was more charitable, calling the pitch "OK. It was a little high and outside, but other than that, he got it there in the air."
He said that after the pitch, the president told him, "I wasn't going to bounce it."
Obama received a loud ovation from the packed crowd, with a few boos scattered in. Earlier, a video montage of presidential pitches in Washington elicited boos when it showed former President George W. Bush.
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