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Home > Window on Washington > Archives > 2008 > March > 25 > Entry

Bush to pitch to substance abuser?

By Ken Herman | Tuesday, March 25, 2008, 01:36 PM

Here’s the potential dilemma. How would you handle it?

Hall of Fame baseball player George W. Bush (Little League Hall of Fame. You can look it up.) will throw the ceremonial first pitch Sunday at Nationals Park, new home of the Washington Nationals. The game will be nationally televised.

Bush has been an outspoken critic of steroid and substance abuse by baseball players. His name came up once in the Mitchell Report that documented the widespread abuse of performance enhancing substances by baseball players.

“In his January 2004 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush denounced the use of steroids in elite sports and called on athletes, owners, and unions to address the issue,” the report noted.

The Nationals’ starting catcher - and hence a natural choice to catch the cermonial first pitch - is expected to be Paul Lo Duca.

Lo Duca’s name comes up 37 times in the Mitchell Report, which said a former Mets clubhouse assistant who has acknowledged providing substance-enhancing drugs to players “estimated that he engaged in six or more transactions with Lo Duca.”

So here’s the potential opening-night visual: The president who is concerned about substance abuse in baseball winds up and throws the ceremonial pitch to a catcher linked to substance abuse. It’s all smiles and happiness as president and catcher pose for the post-pitch photo.

Would you call for somebody else to handle the ceremonial catching chore?

For the record, there is precedent for Bush throwing to somebody other than the home-team catcher. In Milwaukee in 2001, Bush threw to then-Brewers Manager Davey Lopes. At the post-9/11 World Series in New York he threw to Yankee backup catcher Todd Greene. In April 2006, Bush threw to Reds’ backup catcher Jason La Rue.

His two other ceremonial pitches went to the home-team starting catchers: the Cardinals’ Mike Matheny in April 2004 and the Nationals’ Brian Schneider in April 2005.

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