Bush, baseball, Koizumi?November 6th, 2009 by Roy Berman |
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It’s been widely reported that Bush threw out the first pitch at a baseball game in Japan on Wednesday. (Game 3 of the Japan Series between the Yomiuri Giants and Nippon Ham Fighters for those who care.) But did you know that the former president was hanging out with former PM Junichiro Koizumi while he watched the game? Both of the men have been fairly inconspicuous since leaving office, but it’s kind of amusing to see they still hang out even when there’s no statecraft to be done.
In the video you can see Bush throwing the pitch right at the beginning, with Koizumi and someone who is probably US Ambassador John Roos on the other side of the catcher’s mound, but the other 9 minutes is tedious baseball.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Love the picture. Ahh, the good ‘ol days.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
After all the fun at Graceland Bush swore an oath to be by Koizumi’s side as often as possible in case he did something wacky again involving jewel-encrusted sunglasses.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Whole thing seemed kind of pointless and unseemly. Maybe this happened because current baseball commissioner and former ambassador to the US Kato was a superfan of Bush. But this was the highest-profile venue he got. Not even a hello from Hatoyama.
November 8th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Pointless? It wasn’t a state visit and seemed to have happened for just personal and, more broadly, social/cultural reasons. Is Obama supposed to meet with Blair or Abe when they’re in DC?