Biden won't throw out first pitch after Fauci's dismal showing

The White House said Tuesday that President Joe Biden will not be throwing out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals’ Thursday home opener.

‘Well, first let me say I know the president is eager to get out to Nationals stadium, many beautiful days, many beautiful baseball games ahead this spring,’ press secretary Jen Psaki said. ‘It’s not on his schedule this week, but I certainly expect that baseball fans will be hearing from him in the next couple days.’ 

Biden’s decision to forgo the presidential tradition comes after Dr. Anthony Fauci tossed out the first pitch last year, only to be ridiculed for completely missing home plate.  

White House press secretary Jen Psaki (left) said President Joe Biden (right) did not have Thursday’s home opener for the Washington Nationals on his schedule to throw out the first pitch, but said baseball fans would be hearing from the president ‘in the next couple days’ 

Dr. Anthony Fauci threw out the pitch at the Washington Nationals’ delayed home opener in late July and the ball didn’t make it anywhere near home plate 

Fauci was kicking off Major League Baseball’s season – that had been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic – in late July. 

The nation’s top infectious disease expert blamed his poor display on a sore arm. 

‘I completely destroyed my arm!’ he told The Wall Street Journal, wearing it out in a pitching practice session with a local high schooler. ‘It went as a line drive toward first base,’ he admitted.  

Fauci critics, namely former President Donald Trump, still haven’t let the pitch go. 

In a statement Trump sent out Monday, the ex-president brought up the pitch as he lambasted Fauci for critical comments the doctor made about Trump’s COVID response to CNN’s Sanjay Gupta as part of the documentary, ‘COVID WAR: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out.’ 

Trump said that while Fauci ‘said he was an athlete in college’ he ‘couldn’t even throw a baseball even close to the home plate.’

‘It was a “roller,”‘ Trump said.   

The Nationals’ decision to pick Fauci over Trump to appear at the home opener in 2020 was interpreted as a snub, as presidents usually get the honor. 

Nationals fans famously booed Trump when he came to the stadium in 2019 in the run-up to the team’s World Series win. 

In response to the Nationals invitation to Fauci, Trump announced at a coronavirus taskforce briefing that he would be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch for the New York Yankees several weeks later. 

The New York Times later reported that the announcement surprised both the White House and the Yankees, as that engagement hadn’t been planned. 

Trump hadn’t been asked to appear on the date he mentioned, though asked aides to call up the Yankees and make good on a standing invitation after Fauci had been selected by the Nationals. 

Trump later canceled this trip to Yankees Stadium saying he was too focused on the coronavirus to attend.       

Besides Fauci, Trump has also taken advantage of Biden lacking coordination, specifically his tumble up Air Force One’s stairs earlier this month. 

‘That tumble was terrible. It wasn’t really one, it was three, and it wasn’t mentioned for the most part in the lamestream media,’ Trump told Newsmax during a telephone interview. 

Biden last threw out a first pitch in 2009 at Baltimore’s Camden Yards. 

Biden, wearing khakis and a black polo shirt, tossed the ball directly to home plate.