President Trump has decided not to throw out the first pitch at a New York Yankees game next month, citing meetings and continued work on the response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, 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!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, 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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2020
Trump last week began teasing throwing out a first pitch at a Major League Baseball game.
During a press conference on Thursday, he was asked about Dr. Anthony Fauci, an immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who serves on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, throwing out the first pitch that night at a Washington Nationals game.
“I think I’m doing that on Aug. 15 at Yankee Stadium,” he said. “And I say, ‘How’s the crowd going to be?’ And, you know, it’s like you don’t have a crowd,” he added.
“The key is to get back to normal,” the president said. “Nobody wants to see this. I think it is really good that baseball is opening. It looks like football is opening. It looks like sports are opening. It’s a tremendous thing psychologically for our country.”
While Fauci was applauded for throwing out the first pitch (which drew a slew of hilarious comments on social media), Trump was roundly ripped for teasing out that he’d be doing the same thing.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote on Twitter that the Yankees were on “the wrong side of history and morality.”
“After CONDEMNING racism, the next step isn’t inviting it to your pitcher’s mound,” the Democrat tweeted. “To the players that knelt for the BLM movement, we applaud you. To the execs that have aligned with hatred, you are on the wrong side of history and morality.”
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz also decried Trump, saying in a statement: “I am shocked and outraged by the New York Yankees’ decision to invite President Donald Trump to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium on August 15. We all deserve better than a careless major league baseball organization that consistently ignores the surrounding community while pandering to an unapologetic white supremacist like Donald Trump.”
But Trump was ridiculed on social media for bailing on the first pitch, too.
“I don’t think he can throw a pitch. Even a Fauci pitch,” wrote Joyce Alene, a law professor and MSNBC contributor.
I don't think he can throw a pitch. Even a Fauci pitch.
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) July 26, 2020
Others on Twitter, though, posted videos of Trump firing a strike at a baseball game in 2004, when he landed his helicopter in center field to throw out the first pitch for the Somerset Patriots in Bridgewater Township, NJ.
Dude just casually hits the rubber and launches a ROCKET. pic.twitter.com/rTmZfL2J5K
— Jimmy Tacos 🌮 (@Jimmy__Tacos) July 25, 2020
Fauci’s pitch, though, did not go well.
Anthony Fauci, First Pitch Mechanics. pic.twitter.com/QxszDQJDuu
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 23, 2020