POTUS and the Pretend Pitch; Did Trump Invent His Yankees Invite?

As we covered recently, Dr. Anthony Fauci threw out the first pitch on Opening Day for the New York Yankees at Washington Nationals game last Thursday. It … could have gone better. Fauci joined the like of Gary Dell’Abate and 50 Cent in the pantheon of bad first pitches with an awkward toss that almost looked as though he’d spent more of his life studying infectious disease than throwing balls. As if we needed another sign we should be listening to the guy.

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About an hour before Fauci took the hill, not to be outdone, another prominent D.C. figure made a big unexpected announcement with President Trump telling reporters who had gathered at the White House that the Yankees had invited him to throw out a first pitch. The president said that Yankees team president and family member “Randy Levine is a great friend of mine from the Yankees and he asked me to throw out the first pitch, and I think I’m doing that on Aug. 15 at Yankee Stadium.”

Trump hasn't done this once during his presidency.
But now — on the day Fauci is throwing out the first pitch for the Nats' season opener — he announces he will throw out a first pitch https://t.co/8iuT7eM8FM

— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) July 23, 2020

After later seeing Dr. Fauci take the mound and do this:

Dr. Anthony Fauci threw out the first pitch before the Nationals-Yankees game. pic.twitter.com/04Tbkh7Voa

— ESPN (@espn) July 23, 2020

It seems that Trump got to thinking about the pressure and whether he’d look just as foolish. This is a man with an ego so large that we actually have to keep on another planet so as not to throw off Earth’s orbit and send us all hurtling toward the sun. He’s also a frequent former Stern guest and is definitely familiar with the worst first pitch of all time.

On Sunday afternoon, shortly after finishing up the 266th golf outing of his presidency and his ninth of July, Trump tweeted

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1287473812733341696?s=20

The man is just too damn busy defending your freedoms to possibly have time for such nonsense …

President Trump and @BrettFavre on the golf course today.

Photo via the White House pic.twitter.com/vPBeSGDL5G

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) July 25, 2020

While it was safe and accurate to assume that the cancellation was entirely related to an ego panic, it turns out that the truth is even stranger and “Trumpier” than that. On Monday night, The New York Times broke the story that Trump was never even invited by the Yankees in the first place, having made up the story from whole cloth.

The actual details, according to the Times, are that once upon a time when they were both just New York City executive types, Randy Levine invited Trump to throw out a first pitch one day. Trump decided now was the time to cash that check and told his people to tell Levine, then went and announced it to the world to the great surprise of the Yankees and the White House staff.

“There was one problem: 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.” https://t.co/6S0VZlpJdC

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) July 28, 2020

As we’ve already mentioned, this is a man who has spent his last several weekends playing golf, hawking Goya products on Twitter and doing everything he can to not even try to fight back against the virus currently ravaging this country. The idea that he’s suddenly too busy is laughable. Far more likely is the notion that New York told the Yankees exactly what we think of this idea, and the team told the President his plan didn’t work for them. Otherwise, why cancel? The date is still open, the game is taking place, there’s no conflict on the mound or the White House travel itinerary. Maybe it’s because he knows that no matter what he does, even if he’s better than Fauci, he’ll never live up to far and away the greatest moment of the George W. Bush presidency.

That’s how a polarizing, terrible president unifies a nation, however briefly, Mr. President. Take notes. But you know, only on this part of his presidency, the rest of it was that small dumpster fire next to your raging five-alarm tower inferno. For the Yankees, it looks like we’ll have to replace the self-proclaimed greatest baseball player New York has ever seen …

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/319432090078830592?s=20

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