Appel: Herbert Hoover gets booed at the World Series
From SABR member Marty Appel at The National Pastime Museum on June 25, 2015:
Politicians in modern America know that being introduced at a sports event comes with some risk. Sports fans, especially after a beer or two, are pretty uninhibited about letting their feelings known for elected officials. As fans have discovered, stadium security will not throw them out onto the street if they boo.
It’s pretty much open season, and if you are an office holder, you would be wise to check your poll numbers before agreeing to an introduction.
Herbert Hoover, the nation’s 31st president, must have felt pretty confident when he decided to take in a World Series game in 1931. There really were no poll numbers to refer to at the time, nor was there much history of a president being poorly treated at large gatherings. (Let’s call Ford’s Theater in Washington a medium gathering.) It was still a time when respect for the office tended to win the day.
Hoover had been to a number of games before, maintaining the tradition of throwing out the first pitch of the season and also going to Philadelphia for games in both the 1929 and 1930 World Series.
Read the full article here: http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/herbert-hoover-gets-booed-world-series
Originally published: June 26, 2015. Last Updated: June 26, 2015.