From ‘bad ass’ to ‘throwing like a toddler’, the US president’s maiden throw divides America

From his Middle East strategy to healthcare reform, Barack Obama has made several pitches to the American people in recent months. But none has attracted the level of scrutiny as the one he made last night, from the mound at the major league All-Star baseball game at Busch stadium in St Louis, Philadelphia.

Obama, the fifth sitting president to throw the first pitch at an All-Star game – after Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, said the pitch was “as much fun as I’ve had in quite some time”.

He attracted a few boos from the otherwise cheering crowd when he emerged from the dugout wearing a Chicago White Sox jacket – a wardrobe choice the president told Fox TV was influenced by his wife’s opinion that it makes him “look cute”. He had previously tossed the first ball to his favourite team during the American League championship series in 2005.

The US media seemed rather underwhelmed by his performance, with the Los Angeles Times describing “his short southpaw lob” as “lacking in style points”, while the New York Times political blogger Jack Curry said the throw floated softly but was a bit “wobbly”.

Opinion was rather more polarised on YouTube, with comments under one clip ranging from the unflattering assessment by fireman10002000 that “he throws like a toddler” to poster diegothomas extolling the president for being “such a bad ass”. Although many more posters were more concerned by the Fox cameraman spectacularly failing to capture the ball being caught.

The man himself seemed pretty relaxed with his performance. But perhaps he was thankful he didn’t put his foot in it as he did in an interview with chat show host Jay Leno, in which he seemed to mock disabled athletes by laughingly comparing his own diabolical bowling score to what he called “the Special Olympics”.

From ‘bad ass’ to ‘throwing like a toddler’, the US president’s maiden throw divides America

From his Middle East strategy to healthcare reform, Barack Obama has made several pitches to the American people in recent months. But none has attracted the level of scrutiny as the one he made last night, from the mound at the major league All-Star baseball game at Busch stadium in St Louis, Philadelphia.

Obama, the fifth sitting president to throw the first pitch at an All-Star game – after Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, said the pitch was “as much fun as I’ve had in quite some time”.

He attracted a few boos from the otherwise cheering crowd when he emerged from the dugout wearing a Chicago White Sox jacket – a wardrobe choice the president told Fox TV was influenced by his wife’s opinion that it makes him “look cute”. He had previously tossed the first ball to his favourite team during the American League championship series in 2005.

The US media seemed rather underwhelmed by his performance, with the Los Angeles Times describing “his short southpaw lob” as “lacking in style points”, while the New York Times political blogger Jack Curry said the throw floated softly but was a bit “wobbly”.

Opinion was rather more polarised on YouTube, with comments under one clip ranging from the unflattering assessment by fireman10002000 that “he throws like a toddler” to poster diegothomas extolling the president for being “such a bad ass”. Although many more posters were more concerned by the Fox cameraman spectacularly failing to capture the ball being caught.

The man himself seemed pretty relaxed with his performance. But perhaps he was thankful he didn’t put his foot in it as he did in an interview with chat show host Jay Leno, in which he seemed to mock disabled athletes by laughingly comparing his own diabolical bowling score to what he called “the Special Olympics”.