The Presidents and the Pastime: The History of Baseball & the White House by Curt Smith (review)

In The Presidents and the Pastime, Curt Smith, a speechwriter for President George H. W. Bush and the author of several baseball books, examines the historical relationship between two of the most significant institutions in American history—baseball and the Presidency. However, the relationship between the two institutions seems rather frayed and strained today. Baseball has been surpassed by football, and it is no longer the national pastime. Respect for the Presidency has been undermined by the rhetoric and behavior of Donald Trump, who has not attended a Major League Baseball game during his tenure in office—perhaps fearing a negative crowd reaction to his appearance. Smith seeks to remind us that this was not always the case as he surveys the historical connection between the Presidency and baseball, offering in his conclusion suggestions as to how the sport might regain its stature.

After a brief chronological survey of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, crediting William Howard Taft with the tradition of the Chief Executive tossing out the ceremonial first pitch to inaugurate the baseball season, Smith develops a detailed chapter on every President from Franklin Roosevelt to Trump. This analysis of Presidential administrations moves beyond politics as in a rather anecdotal and often meandering fashion, Smith weaves the stories of the Presidents' favorite teams and players into a narrative that also features the troubled history of Major League Baseball in the nation's capital. Smith, who has written about and interviewed many of baseball's most articulate radio and television commentators, skillfully incorporates these voices, especially Vin Scully of the Dodgers, into his chronicle. Most baseball fans will enjoy this journey down memory lane, but historians may find much with which to quarrel in Smith's evaluation of the nation's Chief Executives.

Although a Republican, Smith generally evokes a nonpartisan perspective and tends to emphasize the achievements rather than the failures and controversies associated with individual Presidents. As one might expect regarding a man for whom he once worked, Smith has extensive praise for George H. W. Bush, but, on the other hand, he admires Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom he credits with preserving baseball during the Second World War. In fact, Smith argues that Roosevelt's efforts on behalf of baseball during the war should have earned the President enshrinement in Baseball's Hall of Fame; however, political prejudices denied Roosevelt this honor—although Smith fails to consider how long such discrimination continued to bar a figure such as Marvin Miller from Cooperstown. Smith also tends to downplay the Watergate scandal in favor of admiration for Richard Nixon's baseball acumen and determination that carried him from rags to riches. Citing the eloquence of Ronald Reagan's communication skills, which served him well as a baseball announcer and President, Smith neglects to note that the "Great Communicator" failed to employ the "bully pulpit" to support Americans suffering from the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.

Despite efforts to maintain a degree of nonpartisanship, Smith does seem to get caught up in the nation's cultural wars. He credits Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy with presiding over a prosperous nation whose traditional citizens were raised on "modesty, unity, and pride in our past," but beginning in the 1960s urban riots and opposition to the Vietnam War fostered "a largely narcissistic upper class" that abhorred "sacrifice and patriotism" (186). Smith's anathema toward a younger generation is also reflected in somewhat of a defense of Bill Clinton that describes Monica Lewinsky as reflective of people on the make, "doing anything to get ahead" (252–53). Thus, Smith tends to abandon nonpartisanship when examining Barack Obama, whom the author perceives as the product of a cultural elite, and Trump, whom Smith seems to accept as championing traditional working-class Americans whose values and sacrifices have been ignored by liberal cultural elites in recent years.

This somewhat curmudgeonly tone is also present in...