Ownership of the Texas Rangers helped propel George W. Bush’s political career, and decades later, a friend says, baseball remains “part of who he is.
For former First Fan George W. Bush, this week was nevertheless memorable even though it doesn’t come with a ring. The team that first introduced him to politics won its first World Series win over thirty years after he sold the Texas Rangers.
Last week, Mr. Bush threw out the opening pitch to begin the series, and on Wednesday, he watched his former team win Game 5 in Phoenix from his home in Dallas. When he was signing the checks, the former managing partner of the Rangers experienced an exhausting conclusion to a championship that escaped him.
Tom Bernstein, a close friend and former partner in the Rangers ownership, stated, “I think he’s loving it.” Baseball has always enthralled Mr. Bush, he added. It just resonates with him. The whole piece has a catchy rhythm, despite its corniness. He is an instructor in the game. It’s all consuming him. He was all along. Why does baseball exist? This game is insane. However, it speaks to him. It’s inherent to who he is.
Normally staying out of the statement-issuing business, the former president made an exception on this occasion and said he was “thrilled” by the outcome. He praised “the owners, the front office, the coaching staff, the managers, and the entire organisation.” Naturally, I also want to congratulate this amazing team’s players for winning the first World Series in the history of our club. Laura and I are really proud of this team because this was baseball at its best.
Since Andrew Johnson brought the first players from a formal team to the White House and William Howard Taft became the first chief executive to toss out the first pitch on opening day, baseball has been known as the sport of presidents. But Mr. Bush and his father, President George H.W. Bush, a standout first baseman at Andover and Yale, may have had the closest ties to America’s favourite game of all.
Since Andrew Johnson brought the first players from a formal team to the White House and William Howard Taft became the first chief executive to toss out the first pitch on opening day, baseball has been known as the sport of presidents. But Mr. Bush and his father, President George H.W. Bush, a standout first baseman at Andover and Yale, may have had the closest ties to America’s favourite game of all.
The author of “The Last Republicans,” a book on the presidential couple, Mark K. Updegrove, claims that baseball “acted as a bonding agent” between the two Bushes. Using their nicknames based on presidential command, Mr. Updegrove continued, “it was baseball that captured 43’s imagination, just as it had for 41” despite the fact that football dominated Texas’ sports culture.
George W. Bush struggled in business and politics for many years, but any unspoken rivalry between the two Bushes crested in 1989 when the son attracted investors to acquire the Rangers and began to emerge from his father’s tremendous shadow.
“Given the family’s reverence for the sport, it may have meant a little more to 43 that when he finally made something of himself in business after struggling in the oil industry in which his father had succeeded,” Mr. Updegrove said.
It was also a very good deal. Despite contributing only $606,000 to the $86 million purchase, Mr. Bush served as the team’s approachable public face in his capacity as managing partner. Most nights, he signed autographs behind the dugout in Section 109, Row 1, Seat 8, rather than in the owner’s box. He made his likeness on baseball cards and toured the state making talks at lunches hosted by Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs.
In order to construct a new stadium, Mr. Bush arranged a referendum for a temporary tax increase. The Rangers went from losing to winning in seven of the ensuing ten seasons, almost doubling attendance and revenue, even though he traded Sammy Sosa away, a move he regrets to this day.
The turnaround also laid the groundwork for a 1994 gubernatorial race by a politically ambitious son. He once said, “My biggest political problem in Texas was solved by the ownership success.” What has the boy ever done? was my issue. He soon relocated his collection of baseball cards with autographs to the governor’s office. In 1998, he made a substantial profit of $14.9 million by selling his Rangers ownership.
However, Mr. Bush’s most well-known baseball moment occurred following the September 11 attacks, when he showed the nation’s resilience by tossing the opening pitch in Game 3 of the World Series in New York. Before going into the field, he was anxious and wearing a Kevlar vest.
The Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter intimidated him into throwing off the mound by saying, “This is New York.” They will jeer at you if you toss from the mound’s base. The midway strike by Mr. Bush was enthusiastically applauded. 
Before tossing out the opening pitch of the Rangers’ season opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Mr Bush and Mr Jeter reconnected at Globe Life Field in Arlington on Friday. Mr. Bush informed him on camera, “I’m fired up,” and then declared that the Rangers would “prevail in six games.”
He added that this time he would pitch from the base of the mound, recalling Mr. Jeter’s remark from 22 years later, “all I thought about on the mound was you!” “Very different atmosphere,” the 77-year-old Mr. Bush remarked.
Mr. Jeter answered, “Well, this is Texas, so if you bounce it, they won’t boo you.”
Bush concurred. The strain had subsided. “It’s irrelevant right now.”
Mr. Bush did, in fact, throw a one-bouncer while sporting a Rangers jacket. However, the audience applauded, and Mr. Bush left with a broad smile.
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