Former presidential speechwriter Curt Smith documents the twinned histories of baseball and the presidency.
George Washington was known to throw a ball鈥攆or hours, reported one soldier under his command鈥攚ith his aide-de-camp during the Revolutionary War. Abraham Lincoln would join baseball games on the lawn of Blair House, which still stands across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. 鈥淚 remember how vividly he ran, how long were his strides, how far his coattails stuck out behind,鈥� the home鈥檚 owner, Francis Preston Blair, recalled in a letter to his grandson.
The story of baseball in the United States is intertwined with that of the presidency, says Curt Smith, a senior lecturer in English and the author of聽The Presidents and the Pastime: The History of Baseball and the White House聽(University of Nebraska Press, 2018). He traces the points of connection from the colonial era to the present, devoting a chapter to each president since William Howard Taft, who in 1910 inaugurated the practice of the president throwing out a ceremonial first pitch.
Growing up in small-town Caledonia, New York, Smith would sit on his front porch, poring over the presidential biographies and baseball entries in the family鈥檚 encyclopedia set. 鈥淚 was enamored,鈥� he says. 鈥淔ixated.鈥�
He followed his entrancements to their ends, becoming a speechwriter to President George H. W. Bush and the person聽USA Today聽once dubbed the 鈥渧oice of authority on baseball broadcasting.鈥�
Many politicians have been baseball fans, and Smith seized opportunities to talk about the game with people such as President Richard Nixon and New York Governor Mario Cuomo, once widely viewed as a likely future president.
Nixon was uncoordinated and not much of an athlete, but he had 鈥渁n endearing 鈥榃alter Mitty鈥� quality to him regarding baseball, which is true of many people,鈥� Smith says. Cuomo, by contrast, was a former center fielder in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system. But each of them saw strong links between politics and baseball.
Both pursuits are combative, Smith says they told him. 鈥淭hey require strategy and the use of all your resources鈥攎ental, physical, and often moral and spiritual. And neither pursuit is bereft of ego.鈥�
While the high stakes of the presidency are self-evident, for millions of Americans鈥擲mith included鈥攖he rewards and perils of the playing field are deeply felt, too.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt, asking whether the 1942 baseball season should go ahead as planned. Roosevelt gave his reply publicly, at a press conference: 鈥淚 honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going.鈥�
The president had concluded that the game was crucial to morale, both for troops abroad and on the home front. Smith writes: 鈥淏aseball鈥檚 cachet was so overwhelming that FDR did not consider obliging another sport . . . The priority here was the war, which baseball could help win.鈥�
The game鈥檚 fortunes have since declined. In the 1960s, television networks broadcast five regular-season match-ups per week. Now the only people who watch 鈥渁lready love baseball. It doesn鈥檛 court casual fans,鈥� Smith says. This 鈥渇reefall鈥� in popularity pains him, and he has pointed suggestions for baseball鈥檚 leaders on measures that he thinks would draw more people to the sport, including keeping the batter in the batter鈥檚 box, enforcing the strike zone, and eliminating pitchers鈥� delays.
But the pleasure of what he calls 鈥渢his evocative sport鈥� isn鈥檛 in the technicalities, and the book weaves together political and athletic anecdotes. 鈥淭here are a lot of statistics included, because baseball has a lot of statistics,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut I hate the whole mania for analytics. I love stories.鈥�
So do many politicians鈥攁nd baseball鈥檚 legendary broadcasters. 鈥淚t鈥檚 known as the greatest talking game,鈥� says Smith. 鈥淵ou tell stories between pitches. Between innings. Between batters. Between games in a series.鈥�
One of his own favorite stories is about the first President Bush. The captain of his college team and a tireless spectator, he told Smith he loved the game from the first time he picked up a bat, at age five.
鈥淏aseball,鈥� Bush said, 鈥渉as everything.鈥�
