When Donald Trump decided to be the first president since Taft to refuse to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day in a Major League Baseball game, he created quite the media buzz.
Why won't he?
Joy Reid has some thoughts and it's hard to argue with her, as usual.
First off, In a 2014 interview, Trump claimed to be at one time 'the best baseball player in New York.' This was when Trump was in high school, and he claimed such a preposterous superlative the very same year, 1962, when the Yankees won the World Series with Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Roger Maris.
Gee, that sounds plausible.
The grimaces and odd faces Trump has made in the past while throwing out the first pitch doesn't lead anyone to believe he is a skilled player of any sort. Nor, given that his biggest complaint of the "fake" New York Times post-election was that they used unflattering pictures of him, would he want even more pictures like this made available to the media:
Even the ever-polite Joy notes the tiny hands. Maybe they're just not used to grabbing balls lately. Or maybe he just knows that he won't be warmly received on the field.
REID: Could it be, that Trump, clearly no Mariana Rivera, wants to avoid the potential boos and hisses that could greet him at the Nationals Park, given that a whopping 90% of DC voters chose Hillary Clinton over him? Trump may not be so popular with the players either. Close to 30% of the players on the rosters of MLB's opening rosters were born outside the United States.
The players' home countries, like the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba and Mexico are well-represented in the majors, and Trump's exclusionary wall isn't exactly a popularity contest winner.
