COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. President Barack Obama stopped at Cooperstown’s Baseball Hall of Fame on Thursday and surprised everyone by endorsing Saving Babe Ruth for his first choice selection as part of his National Literacy Campaign announced earlier this year.
Standing in front of the plaques of the inaugural 1936 Hall of Fame class, President Obama said, “It’s only fitting that I announce my endorsement of Saving Babe Ruth as my first choice in my National Literacy Campaign here, at the Hall of Fame, by the first class, in front of Christy Mathewson’s plaque.”
One of the main characters in Saving Babe Ruth, Christy Thompson, is named after the famous pitcher that played for the New York Giants in the early 1900s. President Obama was in Cooperstown promoting the Administration’s efforts to support increased travel and tourism in the United States when he made the surprise announcement.
“We want to bring in more visitors faster and more jobs faster,” Obama said about his tourism initiative. “If they come into JFK faster, they come into LaGuardia faster, then they can get to Cooperstown faster. And they can start seeing Joe DiMaggio’s glove faster. They can see Babe Ruth’s bat faster. And, at the end of the day, they have time left to enjoy Saving Babe Ruth too.” “Right now,” Obama added holding up his copy of Saving Babe Ruth, “I can read and thoroughly enjoy this entire–yes, I said entire–350 page novel in the time it takes someone to enter the airport, check-in, go through security, and board the plane. That’s crazy. The entire boarding process should only last as long as it takes to download and read the first chapter of Saving Babe Ruth.”
Obama suggested that “everyone go over to tomswyers.com , click the download button, and then read the first chapter.” He added, “from the time you start the chapter to the time you finish, you should be seated in the airplane and ordering drinks.”
When asked why he chose Saving Babe Ruth as his first selection, President Obama said, “I received an advance copy and I’ve been reading it on the plane while traveling around the country. Twitter is buzzing with great advance reviews. I like stories about guys who get things done. Maybe I like it because I can’t get anything done with this Republican Congress. Where’s David Thompson when you need him? ”
President Obama was referring to the main character in Saving Babe Ruth, David Thompson, who does some unorthodox things to save his local kids’ baseball league.
After his speech, Obama continued to talk about Saving Babe Ruth with a small group of reporters. “You know, my staff said on the ride here that Saving Babe Ruth is based on a true story. It’s hard to imagine that J.O. Conway exists, but I’m told that he might.”
When the President departed, the 300 invited guests to the speech were seen busily downloading a preview of Saving Babe Ruth and pre-ordering the book on Amazon. Saving Babe Ruth is set to be released on June 27th.
(Author’s note: Saving Babe Ruth was never mentioned by President Obama in Cooperstown, but perhaps it should have been, or at least maybe the underlying themes of the novel might have been referenced. We should remember that baseball is not merely a revenue generating mechanism for the major league owners, the players, or for simply bringing more tourist dollars to Upstate New York and to the Hall of Fame. Baseball, at its very roots, is a way of life for kids in our country; it’s one of the threads that connects us and holds us together; it provides a positive outlet for so many young people, an outlet that’s sorely needed in communities everywhere. And that outlet is being ravaged by our own inclination to monetize everything, even something so innocent as youth baseball. Read this article in the Washington Post and you’ll see what’s happening all over this country. One of the goals of Saving Babe Ruth is to illustrate through entertainment why we need to reevaluate our priorities and expectations when it comes to youth sports ).