April 14, 1910, began badly for President William Howard Taft. His address to a suffragists' convention had bombed, perhaps because the corpulent leader had insulted his female audience.
"The theory that Hottentots or any other uneducated, altogether unintelligent class is fitted for self-government at once or to take part in government is a theory that I wholly dissent from," Taft said, using a now-offensive term to describe nomadic peoples of southwest Africa.
With their hisses still burning in his ears, Taft departed the gathering for the Washington Senators' afternoon opener against the Athletics at National Park.
Just before the game, he was handed a ball.