Presidential First Pitch Scouting Report
Taft
Short-arms his follow through. Blocks his rotation a bit by keeping his glove hand in his pocket. Too fat.
Wilson
Loses power due to his insistence in punching the air when he throws.
Harding
Lets pitching hand fly away from body too much. Body language signifies he does not take it seriously.
Coolidge
Reliance on guard rail shows stability issues. Tries to throw a type of knuckleball,but his grip does not provide the necessary flutter for it to be effective.
Hoover
Lets his glove-side arm hang off his body like a side of pork. Does not actually look at his target — watches the ball instead.
FDR
Stupidly-high release point. Looks like he’s trying to dunk a basketball. Ball only goes about 30 feet. Guard rail issues.
Truman
Leans a little too far back on windup. Glove arm flies outward. Uses his hat as a counterbalance, which would need to be fixed. LOOGY potential.
Eisenhower
Terrible mechanics. Probably not fixable. Holds his glove arm it like he’s avoiding a punch. Barely bends throwing elbow. Doesn’t look at target.
JFK
Max-effort guy. Arm doesn’t have much pronation after release. Narrow shoulders, but good baseball body.
LBJ
Plus glove, in that he’s the first I’ve seen who has one. Arm flies out a little, but, overall, has pretty good form.
Nixon
Poor windup. Leans too far back. Does not even attempt to hide the ball. Uses glove arm for balance well.
Ford
Has fairly good trunk rotation. Tends to fall off the mound a lot.
Carter
Throws from a three-quarter slot with some consistency. A little too rigid in his delivery. Good clubhouse guy — tends to be a peacekeeper.
Reagan
Side-armer with good velocity. A little thick in the middle, and a little old for his level.
H.W. Bush
Too upright on the mound. Insists on using ancient glove. Promotion would not be prudent at this time.
Clinton
Mechanics will lead to elbow injuries. Short stride. Looks at the sky during delivery.
W. Bush
Best delivery I’ve seen so far. Nice, easy motion to home. Another good clubhouse guy. Gives everybody a nickname.
Obama
Good baseball body. Keeps himself in shape. Decent hitter as well. Will have to move to the field if he keeps insisting on wearing a flak jacket while playing.
(pics via the pot of gold at the end of the Internet rainbow known as Reddit)
David G. Temple is the Managing Editor of TechGraphs and a contributor to FanGraphs, NotGraphs and The Hardball Times. He hosts the award-eligible podcast Stealing Home. Dayn Perry once called him a "Bible Made of Lasers." Follow him on Twitter @davidgtemple.
Was it not until the 1980s that they started throwing first pitches from the mound? Was it just Presidents that threw it from the seats or did everyone do that? When did first pitches from the mound (or near it) become common?
yeah, ceremonial first pitches were a) not thrown before every game, and b) a relatively quiet affair where a dignitary in the stands throws the ball UNTIL ronald reagan threw one from the mound. at which point they started being thrown from there every time and then started happening every day and now teams view it as a slot they have to fill, which is how you get Bear Grylls throwing a flaming first pitch. see this new york times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/sports/baseball/baseballs-first-pitch-loses-its-exclusivity.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.