It is the rarest baseball and resides the most unusual dugout in town.
King George V of England knew U.S. president Woodrow Wilson was a big baseball fan. After watching American troops play in England, the monarch signed the game ball and later gave it to the chief executive at Buckingham Palace.
“George R.I. July 4, 1918” is still visible in the glass-encased ball in “the dugout” of the Woodrow Wilson House — where the 28th president’s final years were spent listening to the Washington Senators in his den. It was among his prized possessions. The R.I. was Rex Imperator, Latin for king and emperor.
If the Nationals ever expand outside the “Mount Rushmore Four” for presidents races, Wilson’s baseball credentials merit consideration. Maybe he looked like an intellectual, but the former schoolboy second baseman loved the game — and loved the Senators. He was friends with Walter Johnson and Ty Cobb. Wilson even parked his limo along the right field line where Senators owner Clark Griffithdispatched a reserve catcher for protection from foul balls.
Why, the first thing Wilson did after proposing to his second wife, Edith, was take her to game two of the 1915 World Series. And she still married him.
“Baseball was his principal love,” said Frank Aucella, executive director of the Woodrow Wilson House. “He was a 20th century person — loving cars, loving theatre, watching films, listening to baseball games on a crystal radio set. After his stroke, he would listen to the game and recalculate people’s averages as an exercise to bring back his mind.”
The Wilson House is the city’s only presidential home as a museum. More than 18,000 annually visit the 28-room home amid Embassy Row at 2340 S Street N.W. that was purchased partly with the $50,000 Wilson received for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The presidential china collection is the current big draw. The 1923 Rolls Royce in Wilson’s beloved Princeton colors in the garage was the first car to cross the Wilson Bridge (and probably the last not caught in a backup.)
“People are remembering Wilson in a black and white way, an elderly way, when there were so many other facets overlooked,” said Claudia Bismark, Wilson House Director of Development.
Indeed, Wilson’s sports background is worth a visit alone. The golf clubs are still in the closet. Wilson played with Mark Twain and anyone else who promised not to talk business on the course.
“He golfed every other day as president,” Aucella said. “No one was ever the wiser or cared. They didn’t have ESPN following him around. Army-Navy Country Club was his favorite course. [Yet,] he was miserable. He said, ‘Golf was trying to put an elusive ball into a small hole with tools ill-fitted for the purpose.’”
Wilson rode horses occasionally, his bicycle more often. He loved to travel around Washington daily. Baseball was his passion, though. He never used the displayed American and National League passes for free admission, preferring to pay a nickel like anyone else.
Who knows — an elderly Woody might even beat Teddy during the Nationals Park runs.
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Contact him at [email protected].
