100 Year First Pitch Tradition: Obama Can’t Throw Strikes; McMutrie Sisters Are The Real Aces

On Opening Day, President Obama will continue a tradition started by William Howard Taft in 1910, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the 2010 baseball season at Nationals Park.  The last time Obama threw a pitch was at the All-Star game, it was a media and internet frenzy. 

Of course, he had an excuse,   “I did not play organized baseball when I was a kid, and so, you know, I think some of these natural moves aren’t so natural to me.”   (Yeh, we could tell…check out the video down below if you’re into that kind of stuff.)

The rotation of first pitch hurlers on the 100 year anniversary include:

Roger Staubach for the Rangers.  Darryl Strawberry for the Mets. George Grande a Reds broadcaster for 17 years will toe the rubber for the Reds festivities.  Lew Krausse, the Brewers opening day starter from 1970, will hurl again in Milwaukee.   The Red Sox had an ailing Sen. Ted Kennedy throw last year and he called it “the thrill of a lifetime,”  we know that it won’t be one of these six people throwing the first pitch this year at the Opening Night game against the Yankees.  The Chicago Blackhawk Olympian players will do the honors for the Sox and   Jamie and Ali McMutrie will be on the mound for the Pittsburgh Pirates opener against the Dodgers.

Keep your famous people.  They usually just turn it into hilarity. 

Keep your politicians and former athletes too.

We are looking forward to watching the McMutrie sisters at PNC Park on opening day.

The sisters are amazing heroes after what they have done as unpaid volunteers for orphans in Haiti.   You won’t hear a better story and you will never hear an excuse from them like our commander-in-chief used.

You know what? I won’t be surprised when they fire a strike, but  I doubt the sisters will even consider the tradition to be a thrill of a lifetime either–we’re sure they feel a thrill every time they make a promise to help an orphaned child.