Presidents and baseball

Today of course, is Presidents’ Day.

Baseball is the one sport where there is a history of presidents being involved in, most notably throwing a ceremonial first pitch in many seasons.

The presidential first pitch tradition started with William Howard Taft in 1910 and was most recently done by George W. Bush in 2006 (in Cincinnati). Regardless of who the president is, a presidential ceremonial first pitch is a very cool tradition and I hope it continues.

Perhaps the most important presidential involvement with baseball was the Green Light letter Franklin Roosevelt wrote to then-commissioner Landis, urging baseball to continue during World War II. An excerpt:

I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before.

And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before.

Baseball provides a recreation which does not last over two hours or two hours and a half, and which can be got for very little cost. And, incidentally, I hope that night games can be extended because it gives an opportunity to the day shift to see a game occasionally.

UCLA beats USC

Despite not having a great shooting night, UCLA beat USC 56-46 by doing what it does best — playing great defense and rebounding.

UCLA’s defense held O.J. Mayo to four points and forced him to commit 10 turnovers (USC had 22 turnovers as a team, compared to UCLA’s 9). UCLA had 19 offensive rebounds compared to USC’s 5, and 13 steals to USC’s 3. That’s how UCLA was able to win making only 34% of their shots.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute’s return definitely helped the team. Darren Collison returned to his normal self and played great on both sides of the ball.

It’s good to see that UCLA is back on the right track after the Washington loss and with only three weeks left in the Pac-10 season.

Also, Telemachus at Bruins Nation uploaded some video highlights of the game. Check them out.

42 days ’til Opening Day: Jackie Robinson

There are 42 days left until that best day of the year, MLB Opening Day.

42 is famously the number worn by Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947. I don’t need to tell you this, but obviously, it took a lot of courage for him to go out and play in a segregated league where he repeatedly heard insults from fans and opposing teams.

Robinson’s number 42 has been retired by every team in major league baseball. He was an extremely good baseball player too — he had an OPS+ of over 110 in each of his first eight seasons and finished in the top 12 of the MVP voting in each of his first seven.

The baseball stadium at UCLA, where Jackie went to school, is named after him.