Presidential leaders

Baseball Almanac has a cool section called US Presidents & Major League Baseball that lists what games each President attended. I decided to check out the games each President since Carter attended and see who did the best.

Jimmy Carter only attended one game, the final game of the 1979 World Series. Willie Stargell had the biggest game, going 4-5 with two doubles and a home run.

Ronald Reagan attended four games, three of which were Orioles games. Four Orioles (Ripken, Murray, Dempsey, Shelby) played in all three. None did particularly well, as Baltimore lost all three games. The strongest three game performance was by Cal Ripken, who went 4-12 with 2 RBI.

George H.W. Bush attended ten games, including the 1992 All Star game. As his son owned the Rangers a lot were Texas games. Charlie Hough pitched in three of the games, allowing 8 earned runs in 20.1 innings; Baltimore closer Gregg Olson struck out 8 batters in 4 innings over four games, and Ruben Sierra went 9-19 with 7 R and 5 RBI. The best performance, however, was Rafael Palmeiro, who went 10-17 with 5 R, 4 RBI, and 2 HR.

Bill Clinton attended six games, half of which were Orioles games. Palmeiro played in all three, two as an Oriole and one as a Ranger, and went 5-12 with 4 R, 2 RBI, and 2 HR. Mike Mussina won two of those games, allowing 4 ER in 14.2 IP.

George W. Bush attended nine games. Roger Clemens and Mariano Rivera throttled the Diamondbacks in Game 3 of the 2001 World Series. Jacque Jones went 3-6 with a run scored and an RBI. But most impressive was Will Ohman, who pitched in three games, two for the Cubs and one for the Braves. He pitched 1.1 innings, faced just three batters - and earned two wins!

So far, Barack Obama has attended the 2009 All Star game and two Nationals games. Roy Halladay started the All Star Game and one of the Nats games, allowing three ER in nine innings.