Today is the official Opening Day of the baseball season. And so, in tribute, we give you this perspective of one of the coolest presidential perks. -- Chad

For many years, one of the perks of being president of the United States was throwing out the first pitch on Opening Day for the Washington Senators. Even though the original Washington Senators of the American League left the nation's capital for Minneapolis-St. Paul after the end of the 1960 season, the new expansion Washington Senators took over to start the 1961 season, playing at the same Griffith Stadium (later renamed RFK Stadium).

Well, at the end of the 1971 season, the new Washington Senators left for Dallas-Ft. Worth to be the Texas Rangers (later to be run by George W. Bush). And there was no replacement. Presidents came and went, and there was no baseball joy in Washington.

Major League Baseball moved the Montreal Expos to Washington in 2005, giving the city a new team (the Nationals) and a new league (National League). Former Texas Rangers managing partner George W. Bush has had the luxury of being the first president since Richard Nixon to perform that duty once again.

While the White House has said it had no say in the matter [1], the Washington Nationals decided to change the target of the first pitch this year. The tradition has the pitch going to the starting catcher of the home team. That would be Paul LoDuca. But since Bush has come out against steroids, and LoDuca was implicated in the Mitchell Report [2], they wanted to save Bush the embarrassment of the situation and switched targets.

Bush threw the first pitch to Washington manager Manny Acta at the opening of the team's brand new ballpark, Nationals Park, last night.

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain are all shooting to be the next president. But one of them will get to enjoy this quality perk. So let's analyze their athletic ability.

John McCain and Barack Obama [3] have one interesting thing in common. And they share this trait with Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ross Perot, and Bob Dole. They are all left-handed. Hillary Clinton is the only major party candidate remaining who is right-handed, just like W.

According to Lefties for Obama [4], seven U.S. presidents have been left-handed. But here is where it gets interesting. Four of those seven have come along since 1974 (Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton). The other three were James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, and Harry Truman.

In a "60 Minutes" interview, Obama talks about playing basketball. Obama is also a runner.

Clinton has said she wanted "desperately to be an Olympic athlete [5]," as she told a Purchase College symposium on sex discrimination in education. "I tried everything. I ran every race, and if I was really lucky I finished second to last... I couldn't jump, I couldn't run, I couldn't swim."

According to Wikipedia [6], McCain "excelled at wrestling" at his private preparatory boarding school, and (appropriately given his temper) a "feisty lightweight boxer" in the Naval Academy.

These skills don't always translate into throwing a baseball 60 feet, 6 inches with cameras watching your every move. And consider this: one of the few things Bush can do well is throw ceremonial first pitches. So if our next president doesn't do as well, perhaps it's a sign that person will be a better president.

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