The Old Editor Will Throw Out the First Ball Today

Bulky William Howard Taft makes his toss.

Your favorite editor will try to turn back the clock a smidge today by throwing out the first ball at the Salem Red Sox Business Professional's Special at noon. Throwing out the first ball is cool. William Howard Taft started Presidential the tradition in 1910 and every president, save for Jimmy Carter, since then has done it. (The tradition was actually started-started in 1908 by a Japanese prime minister, but what happens in Japan stays in Japan.)

My guess is that I'll be the first business publication editor in Salem professional baseball history to toss the first ball. Wooo-hooo.

Now the hard part: throwing the ball with this aged rag arm. As a kid pitcher, I was a decent catcher. As a catcher, I couldn't hit a curve.

None of that will matter much today. I get one shot at it and I've spent countless hours in front of a full-length mirror in order to ensure that it at least looks good. If the ball bounces on the way to the catcher, I will ask you to ignore that and look at the form.

Hope you'll be there. Throwing out the first ball may be cool, but doing it alone is less so.

(Photo: Washington Post.)