Celebrity chef José Andrés is slated to throw the first pitch at Game 5 of the World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros on Sunday night after the Houston Astros defeated the Nationals on Friday.
The Nationals had announced earlier Friday that Andrés, a chef in Washington, D.C., and vocal critic of President Trump, would throw out the ceremonial first pitch should there be a Game 5.
Trump is expected to be in attendance at the game on Sunday night, which will be played at Nationals Park near the Anacostia River in southeast D.C. The president joked Thursday he would need “a lot of heavy armor” if threw out the first pitch.
“I don’t know, they got to dress me up in a lot of heavy armor — I’ll look too heavy,” Trump said in the Oval Office during a Presidential Medal of Freedom event. “I don’t like that.”{mosads}
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Friday that he had spoken with Trump about whether he wanted to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Sunday.
“His view was that in order to make the fan experience as positive as possible, he would arrive at Game 5 sometime after the game began, so that wouldn’t interfere with fans getting into the stadium. Quite frankly, we were very grateful for that,” Manfred said, according to The Associated Press.
“His sole focus was if I do something like a first pitch or arrive in that timeframe, is it going to be disruptive to the everyday fan getting into the ballpark and enjoying the game, and he didn’t want that kind of disruption,” Manfred added.
The Astros forced a fifth game after defeating the Nationals on Friday night 4-1. Washington led the series 2-0 heading into the game, which was the first World Series game in the city since 1933. The Astros’ win ended the Nationals’ eight-game winning streak.
The Nationals announced Friday that Andrés would throw out the first pitch for Game 5 while highlighting the chef’s organization, World Central Kitchen, for its efforts to feed large groups of people, including furloughed workers in D.C. and those affected by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
“I’m humbled by the invitation, and I realize is a big big big honor but I really hope that by Saturday night all of WASHINGTON will be celebrating that the @Nationals are the 2019 @MLB World Series Champions,” the chef tweeted.
Trump and the chef have feuded for years following Andrés’s decision to cancel his planned restaurant in the president’s D.C. hotel over Trump’s rhetoric about Mexican immigrants when announcing his White House bid in 2015.
The Trump Organization settled a legal battle with the chef over the scrapped restaurant plans in 2017.