Post by Admin on Jul 28, 2020 18:38:39 GMT
On Thursday, July 23, before the Opening Day game between the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals, President Donald Trump announced he would be throwing out the first pitch at a Yankees-Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium in August.
Speaking from the White House, Trump said he accepted an offer from Yankees president Randy Levine.
“Randy Levine’s a great friend of mine from the Yankees” Trump said. “He asked me to throw out the first pitch. And I think I’m doing that on August 15 at Yankee Stadium. And I said, ‘How’s the crowd going to be? And, it’s like, ‘You don’t have a crowd. There’s no such thing. It’s gonna be interesting.”
“Because of my strong focus on the China Virus,” Trump tweeted, referring to the coronavirus, “including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @yankees on August 15th. We will make it later in the season!”
However there is a new angle to Trump’s first pitch decision. The New York Times reports Trump never received an offer from the Yankees to play ball on Aug. 15.
Mr. Trump had not actually been invited on that day by the Yankees, according to one person with knowledge of Mr. Trump’s schedule. His announcement surprised both Yankees officials and the White House staff.
According to the New York Times, Trump’s first pitch announcement was motivated by the fact that Dr. Anthony Fauci was throwing out the first pitch on Opening Day at Nationals Park before the game between Yankees and Nationals.
Mr. Trump had been so annoyed by Dr. Fauci’s turn in the limelight, an official familiar with his reaction said, that he had directed his aides to call Yankees officials and make good on a longtime standing offer from Mr. Levine to throw out an opening pitch. No date was ever finalized.
Thursday at Nationals Park, his first pitch was just a bit outside. NBC Sports’ Peter King explains why:
He told Ben Cohen of the Wall Street Journal he hadn’t thrown a baseball in years, so he went out Tuesday night to play catch at a D.C. school, and when he woke up Wednesday morning his arm was killing him. “I completely destroyed my arm!” Fauci told Cohen. And when he got to the mound Thursday evening, the catcher looked “a mile away,” and instead of lobbing one, he tried to throw it hard. And, of course, it rolled to the first-base on-deck circle. Bummer.
Speaking from the White House, Trump said he accepted an offer from Yankees president Randy Levine.
“Randy Levine’s a great friend of mine from the Yankees” Trump said. “He asked me to throw out the first pitch. And I think I’m doing that on August 15 at Yankee Stadium. And I said, ‘How’s the crowd going to be? And, it’s like, ‘You don’t have a crowd. There’s no such thing. It’s gonna be interesting.”
“Because of my strong focus on the China Virus,” Trump tweeted, referring to the coronavirus, “including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @yankees on August 15th. We will make it later in the season!”
However there is a new angle to Trump’s first pitch decision. The New York Times reports Trump never received an offer from the Yankees to play ball on Aug. 15.
Mr. Trump had not actually been invited on that day by the Yankees, according to one person with knowledge of Mr. Trump’s schedule. His announcement surprised both Yankees officials and the White House staff.
According to the New York Times, Trump’s first pitch announcement was motivated by the fact that Dr. Anthony Fauci was throwing out the first pitch on Opening Day at Nationals Park before the game between Yankees and Nationals.
Mr. Trump had been so annoyed by Dr. Fauci’s turn in the limelight, an official familiar with his reaction said, that he had directed his aides to call Yankees officials and make good on a longtime standing offer from Mr. Levine to throw out an opening pitch. No date was ever finalized.
Thursday at Nationals Park, his first pitch was just a bit outside. NBC Sports’ Peter King explains why:
He told Ben Cohen of the Wall Street Journal he hadn’t thrown a baseball in years, so he went out Tuesday night to play catch at a D.C. school, and when he woke up Wednesday morning his arm was killing him. “I completely destroyed my arm!” Fauci told Cohen. And when he got to the mound Thursday evening, the catcher looked “a mile away,” and instead of lobbing one, he tried to throw it hard. And, of course, it rolled to the first-base on-deck circle. Bummer.