Kick off baseball season at the Club

Welcome the start of the 2021 baseball season by tuning in to a National Press Club Headliners Virtual Book Rap with author Fred Frommer and former Washington Senators public address announcer Phil Hochberg at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 1.

Access the event or download a calendar reminder here.

Frommer and Hochberg plan to discuss the relationship U.S. presidents have with baseball.

President William Howard Taft was the first president to throw out a first pitch when he tossed the ball from the stands to Walter Johnson on April 14, 1910, before the Washington Senators played the Philadelphia Athletics. Since then, most U.S. presidents have thrown a first pitch – though not always in Washington and not always on Opening Day.

Frommer, author of You Gotta Have Heart: Washington Baseball from Walter Johnson to the 2019 World Series Champion Nationals, is head of sports PR at the Dewey Square Group and a former Associated Press reporter. Hochberg is a Washington lawyer who represents professional sports leagues and was the stadium announcer for the Senators from 1962-1968.