July 7, 1937
On July 7, 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first US President to attend a Major League Baseball All-star game. President Roosevelt joined more than 30,000 people at Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC, to watch New York Yankees' pitcher Lefty Gomez take the mound for the American League against National League pitcher Dizzy Dean of the St. Louis Cardinals. With a team composed of such Yankees greats as Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio, the American League beat the National League by a score of 8 to 3.
Franklin Roosevelt was truly a fan of America's "National Pastime." As President, he threw the first pitch at more than 10 Major League baseball games and his enthusiasm for the game was palpable. President Roosevelt believed that baseball was such an important part of American life that he insisted Major League Baseball play ball during World War II. In a letter to baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Landis, President Roosevelt explained that continuing baseball was vital to the war effort as a "recreational asset" for the millions of Americans working hard to secure democracy throughout the world.
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Letter on
Professional Baseball During Wartime
My dear Judge Kenesaw M. Landis|:
I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds of their work even more than before. Baseball provides a recreation which does not last over two hours or two hours and a half, and which can be got for very little cost. And, incidentally, I hope that night games can be extended because it gives an opportunity to the day shift to see a game occasionally. As to the players themselves, I know you agree with me that individual players who are of active military or naval age should go, without question, into the services. Even if the actual quality of the teams is lowered by the greater use of older players, this will not dampen the popularity of the sport. Of course, if any individual has some particular aptitude in a trade or profession, he ought to serve the Government. That, however, is a matter which I know you can handle with complete justice. Here is another way of looking at it--if 300 teams use 5,000 or 6,000 players, these players are a definite recreational asset to at least 20,000,000 of their fellow citizens -- and that in my judgment is thoroughly worthwhile.
Franklin D. Roosevelt |