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Go Home The All-star Game And Obama's First Pitch

THE PLANK JULY 14, 2009

The All-star Game And Obama's First Pitch

BY JONATHAN COHN

In-game ceremonies for professional sports games are usually forgettable, at best. Do they even play the Super Bowl anymore? It's hard to tell between the pre-game concert, the halftime concert, and the on-field postgame ceremony. Whatever.

Major League Baseball, to its credit, has been something of an exception. I have particularly fond memories of the 1999 All-Star Game, which was played at Fenway Park. It featured an honor roll of the game's great players from history, capped off by Ted Williams riding in the toss the first pitch. Watching the day's professional players crowd around Williams, like a bunch of little kids, was priceless.

Tonight's ceremony struck a different tone: With taped messages from the five living presidents, the league saluted thirty volunteers, one for each team's home community. Afterwards, the players mingled with them and waited to shake their hands--perhaps not with the same awe they'd treated Williams back in 1999, but with a show of respect that was actually a bit moving.

The game is being held in St. Louis, another great baseball city, so MLB then brought out a host of Cardinal greats. At the end, 88-year-old Stan Musial rode in to deliver the ball for the first pitch. The recipient, of course, was President Obama.

Did Obama's pitch clear the plate? I wish I knew for sure. Fox's camera angle showed the relase and early trajectory, but cut off when the ball reached the plate. The pitch looked headed in the right direction, but it was a bit slow and had some arc. Maybe a change-up? Or slow-breaking 12-to-6 curve? Or just a bad toss?

I checked Twitter and the accounts differ: Some say he hit the plate, others that he just missed. (Check for yourself by searching "Obama pitch.")

But one observation rang true to me: The NL might have been better off starting Obama instead of Giant pitcher Tim Linecum, who gave up several hits and put the NL in a two-run hole.

Update: Obama is in the Fox booth now, playing guest announcer, and they just showed the pitch from another angle. It went straight down the middle but fell just short of the plate, though Albert Pujols rescued it before it hit dirt. Still, Bill Simmons (ESPN's Sports Guy) offers some important perspective, via his Twitter account: "Please don't blame the Prez for throwing a lousy first pitch. He was wearing a bulletproof vest the size of Dustin Pedroia."

--Jonathan Cohn

 

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26 comments

Regardless of the president at the time, I am always impressed that they can even move their arms with the massive kevlar vests they have to wear.  That any of their tosses gets two feet almost defies physics.

- kgrant1054

July 14, 2009 at 10:00pm

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Ceremonies are rituals. And the first thing you need to understand about rituals [athletic or otherwise] is why they are rituals in the first place. When you do something over and over and over again, it imbues it with gravitus. It grounds your behavior emotionally and psychologically. You do it because it is meant to be done. It is a neceesary behavior and necessary behaviors are stacked up on top of each other until you have a narrative that becomes necessary too.

The narrative is the conduit used to justify your behaviors as moral, honorable, principled, virtuous.

People living in a steady state can go year after year after year and never once think about their behavior in this way. Nor do they pay much heed to the fact that hundreds of conflicting rituals practiced around globe do not make their own any less the epitomy of the rational and ethical behavior.

We use rituals basically to delude ourselves that human existence is not essentially meaningless and absurd. If it was, why would we do the same hundreds or thousands of times in the same order week in and week out?

But no one has invented a ritual yet to convey the gravitas of this.

Aside from dying, of course.

george walton

- iambiguous

July 14, 2009 at 10:15pm

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Well, honestly, George.  Quite the little ray of sunshine this evening, aren't you?  Somebody piss in your cornflakes this morning, or are you always quite this ready to start strangling puppies and kicking old ladies at the crosswalk?

Miserable.  

- kgrant1054

July 14, 2009 at 10:57pm

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Evidently Obama has been watching the Royals for some reason lately; every last one of them would have hacked at it.

- cspencef

July 14, 2009 at 11:01pm

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He might have, cspence- anyone see the jacket he was wearing?  

2005 World Series

President wearing a ChiSox jacket on national TV

Ummm...Disco Demolition?

We don't have a lot, but goddammit, we have Obama.

- boneill

July 14, 2009 at 11:16pm

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And good call George- that ceremony of having Stan Musial give the ball to Barack Obama has been repeated thousands of times.  Read the post- don't just see a keyword to kickstart a boring, wildly-obvious monologue that has nothing to do with anything.  

- boneill

July 14, 2009 at 11:18pm

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kgrant, have you not met george yet?

- WoodyBombay

July 14, 2009 at 11:20pm

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Man, I love you guys.

- rozenson

July 15, 2009 at 12:07am

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Woody - Yes, unfortunately.   Just had the idle thought that on a night like tonight, with the opportunity to simply enjoy the loopy romanticism of baseball, George might be able to lay off the standard bean-balls he usually throws.  Obviously not.  He makes H.L. Mencken seem like Pollyanna.  Of course, he is completely without whatever charm Mencken ever had.  

- kgrant1054

July 15, 2009 at 12:21am

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I get the feeling the camera angle was because Obama up and threw the ball, trying to hurry up the game, and Fox wasn't prepared for it in the truck.  I do love those ceremonies, because baseball as a game uniquely cherishes its history.  The NFL sweeps the broken down relics of their game under the rug, and the NBA is always trying to crown player X as the next "Greatest of All Time" to the point of ignoring guys like Wilt, Russell, and everyone else.  I loved the celebration of all the Cardinal Legends and era, the Musial and Schondeist 40s teams, the Lou Brock/Bob Gibson '60s, and the Ozzie Smith 80s.  You really do feel the pastoral grandeur of the American pasttime.

As for the game, it was fine except for Joe Maddon's pitching choices.  Who wants to see the parade of the average closers?  Why not bring in Tim Wakefield?  He's 42, journeyman knuckleballer, on his first (and likely only) All Star Team, leads the AL in wins, and throws a unique pitch (as opposed to high fastball after high fastball) that could bamboozle pitchers who almost never see it (and catchers as well).  That could have been a classic All Star moment, but we never saw it.  Seriously Joe Maddon, you suck.

- Crock1701

July 15, 2009 at 12:36am

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grant:

Well, honestly, George. Quite the little ray of sunshine this evening, aren't you?

george:

That WAS the optimistic version. The pessimistic version goes like this:

God the fucking Nazi [that's what He called Himself] created Earth in a shake and bake moment. Afterward, He was so appalled by what He had created, He invented the Devil and blamed him.

The Devil then created George Will.

One day Will was strolling about the garden of eden when he tripped over me [the snake] and hit his head on home plate. He thought, "there's got to be game more boring than bowling, darts, tennis and golf."

Exactly: He invented baseball.  Or maybe he invented steroids first....Not sure.

Anyway, after his day job [ridding the world of denim] he set out to create the National Pastime. And, in collaboration with Ken Burns, it's now the game we see today. Asked why he loves the sport of baseball above all others he said, "because there aren't as many colored people playing."

I checked. It's true.

gw

- iambiguous

July 15, 2009 at 1:56am

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ill bone:

And good call George- that ceremony of having Stan Musial give the ball to Barack Obama has been repeated thousands of times.

george:

Yes, that's one way to look at it, sure. Another way, however, is that, a hundred years from now, you and I will be long, long, long dead and gone. Indeed, from our point of view then [if you'll pardon my non-sequitor] it will be as though Stan Musial and Barack Obama had never even existed at all. In fact, it will be as though nothing had ever existed at all.

Kind of spooky, right?

Well, okay, I'll admit it: We do return back to the stardust from which we came. But what the fuck does stardust know from Musial and Obama?

But: If you wamt to get all choked up about it, nothing I can say will change that.

Besides, my point of view regarding ceremonies and rituals has almost nothing to do with what either did or did not happen last night. As usual you mistook the tree for the forest. A common affliction among the philosophically challenged.

I'll pray for you.

Now THAT is the mother of all rituals, isn't it?

gw

- iambiguous

July 15, 2009 at 5:24am

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grant,

As I point out over and again, when someone makes me the argument that's the tell.

Think of it like this:

You're watching Stan Musial, Barack Obama, Marty Peretz and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad play poker. Mahmoud keeps winning every hand. Next thing you know Stan, Barack and Marty are complaining about his bad breath, his farts, his entourage, his flashy duds, his pipeline to Allah and the virgins.

You convince yourself that they're not losing so much as he keeps winning. And he keeps winning for every reason except the one that counts: He plays poker alot better than they do.

george

- iambiguous

July 15, 2009 at 5:42am

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rozenson, me too.

And re george: why does he introduce and then sign his posts with, variously, gw, george, george walton, ie "george says this or that", signed gw, george or george walton?  The initial third-person self-reference and then the signature in closing have begun to annoy me more than anything else he actually says.

- cvillekid

July 15, 2009 at 7:30am

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PS, kgrant1054 that " Well, honestly, George.  Quite the little ray of sunshine this evening, aren't you?" is perfect. Kudos.

- cvillekid

July 15, 2009 at 7:34am

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oooookay. Trying to sneak past the troll, what impressed me was when Obama went into the broadcast booth. First, he kept turning the interview around and asking Buck and McCarver what they thought about stuff. Then, with the NL already down by 2, when the topic of the AL being undefeated since 1996 -- the year Obama entered politics! -- came up, Obama said, "This is a problem." And literally seconds later, the NL batters began to string together bloop hits, an error, and a couple of doubles to score 3 runs and take the lead.

Now, I know a lot of people were impressed by the way they thought our last president was listening to God. Me, I'm impressed by the way God seems to be listening to our current president. Unfortunately, Obama left the booth after only half an inning, and without his personal oversight the situation went to heck and the AL eked out the win. But I'm firmly convinced that had Obama stuck around for another inning or two after declaring his support for the NL, the senior circuiteers would have extended their lead and won the game.

But just watch: The White Sox are going to overtake the Tigers for the AL Central pennant, advance to the World Series against the Dodgers, and game 7 will be decided by one of those plays -- say, an outfielder cutting down a baserunner by correctly playing the bounce off the wall -- where familiarity with the quirks of the field favors the home team. And we'll all think back to President Obama wearing his White Sox jacket to the All-Star Game where the AL won World Series home-field advantage and say, "Hmmm ..."

Also, props to the president for wearing a jacket he already owns instead of putting on whatever freebie jacket MLB tried to offer him. Photos of Obama at his daughters' soccer games have shown him wearing that jacket for a couple of years; President Bush always wore a brand-new jacket for this sort of thing. But demerits to the president for wearing jeans. Slacks with a crease, sir, please, at all times when appearing before the public as president. The open collar is fine, but the jeans went too far.

- rhubarbs

July 15, 2009 at 7:44am

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Bloviating self-importance AGAINST baseball...George Walton is the Bizarro George Will!

- adaglas

July 15, 2009 at 8:39am

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adaglas for Post of the Day. That would make him our very own George Won't.

- rhubarbs

July 15, 2009 at 10:05am

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The shot at the Super Bowl is off base.  While the Super Bowl ceremonies are ridiculous, the game itself has been incredible for several years now.  

- phatkarp

July 15, 2009 at 10:15am

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adaglas should get the CoTD for that pithy brilliance, but rhubarbs envoked a scenario ending with the White Sox winning the World Series, and for that, he gets my vote.

- boneill

July 15, 2009 at 11:21am

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But thanks for your response, walton.  See, before you, I had no idea that we would all die, and that we were insignificant to the cold, unfeeling universe, and that we had very little time on this planet.  Thanks for pointing that out.  But now that I know all that is true- which, again, I didn't- I might actually go about enjoying things that make me happy, such as baseball and politics and bullshitting with my friends, rather than use any opportunity to point out the obvious with the tone of a 9th-grader who has just watched The Doors.  

- boneill

July 15, 2009 at 11:25am

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Rhubarbs,

What if he *does* wear a new jacket every outing, but they're just the same style? Huh? Did I just blow your mind?

And this lifelong Astros fanatic heartily, politely encourages the ChiSox lovers around here to go jump in Lake Michigan.

- WoodyBombay

July 15, 2009 at 11:33am

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Woody, what did we ever do to you?

Oh...

Sorry, that World Series was so quick I sometimes forget who we played.

(look, we're in the same boat- teams that just don't win.  I have to do some trash-talking, right?  I never get to!)

- boneill

July 15, 2009 at 12:01pm

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Woody, would it make you feel any better to know that this Texaphile Twins fan more commonly refers to the junior circuit team from Chicago as the "Bitch Sox"? Would it make you feel even better to know that I spent two formative years in little league wearing the rainbow gut-stripes of the Astros, with all the mercilessly homophobic teasing that naturally results anytime you dress one bunch of preadolescent boys in rainbow stripes and then send them out to play a team sport against another bunch of boys not dressed in rainbow shirts? Does that make you feel better, pal, huh? Does it?

Er, um, not that having to wear rainbow-striped Astros uniforms in little league was a lasting trauma or anything ...

- rhubarbs

July 15, 2009 at 2:29pm

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BatGirl always used to say "Bitch Sox" as well.  I like it, because it doesn't even try to rhyme or make any sense.  

Also, Rhubs, I know what you mean, but "Texaphile Twins" sounds like a great name for a run-down independent league team playing somewhere near a dusty border with Oklahoma...

- boneill

July 15, 2009 at 3:14pm

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I'm not usually a "just happy to be here" fan, but in the '05 Series I was JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE. My expectations weren't high. One game. That's all I wanted, really. One fucking game. Please don't get swept. ONE GAME!

Those rainbow unies made me question some things, though. I mean, Jose Cruz looked pretty tight in that thing. It was a crazy, troubling time.

- WoodyBombay

July 15, 2009 at 7:50pm

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