President Benjamin Harrison Attends a Major League Game

On June 6, 1892, President Benjamin Harrison arrived at Boundary Field in Washington, D.C., in a horse-drawn carriage and took his seat in the first row of the press box above the grandstand. He wore a black derby, a frock coat, and rested one hand on an ornamental cane. The 2,400 fans in attendance that Monday afternoon buzzed at the sight of a sitting president at a professional baseball game, something no commander in chief had done before.

The Cincinnati Reds were in town to play the Washington Senators. Right-hander Cyclone Duryea started for Cincinnati, and southpaw Phil Knell took the mound for Washington. The game stretched to eleven innings, with the Reds winning 7-4. Harrison did not stay to see the finish. He left in the bottom of the sixth inning with Cincinnati leading 4-1. The Republican National Convention was set to begin in four days in Minneapolis, and his mind was already on the fight for renomination.

Harrison had reason to seek a public distraction. His wife, Caroline, was seriously ill with tuberculosis. His relationship with the Republican party bosses had deteriorated. His presidency was embattled, and the election that fall would end in defeat to Grover Cleveland. A few hours at a ball game offered a brief escape.

Previous presidents had been associated with the sport. Andrew Johnson had welcomed amateur teams to the White House lawn. Ulysses Grant had attended a professional game as a private citizen. But Harrison was the first to attend in office, establishing a tradition that every president after him would continue. William Howard Taft threw the first ceremonial first pitch in 1910. Franklin Roosevelt made Opening Day attendance a ritual. The connection between the presidency and baseball became a fixture of American public life, all tracing back to a June afternoon when Harrison rode his carriage two miles from the White House to watch the Reds beat the Senators.