// BEGIN editorial data var i = 0; var spt_President08_sports = new Array(); spt_President08_sports.ID = "spt_President08_sports"; spt_President08_sports.ID_WB = 22287186; spt_President08_sports.sPubDate = "10/30/2008 6:06:08 PM GMT"; spt_President08_sports.navsectionID = "3032112" spt_President08_sports.appFmt = 9; spt_President08_sports.itemsPerPage = 1; spt_President08_sports.appWidth = 624; spt_President08_sports.appHeader = ""; spt_President08_sports.appNavStyle = 3; spt_President08_sports.bDhtml = 0; spt_President08_sports.appLayout = 3; spt_President08_sports.copyHeight = 720; spt_President08_sports.copyWidth = 470; spt_President08_sports.copyMargin = 9; spt_President08_sports[i++] = new Array("","","President George W. Bush throws out the ceremonial first pitch before the Cincinnati Reds Opening Day game against the Chicago Cubs in 2006. ","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060403/060403_bush_hmed_4p.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "Matt Sullivan", "Reuters", "214", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", ""); spt_President08_sports[i-1].body = "Who says sports and politics don't mix? Certainly not any of the recent occupants of the White House.

George W. Bush is a former owner of the Texas Rangers.

And Bill Clinton sure loves a good round of golf, although it pales in comparison to the passion Dwight Eisenhower (800 rounds while in office) and Woodrow Wilson (over 1,200 rounds) displayed for the links.

Bush's father, who played first base for Yale in the College World Series, also has been known to tee it up. Not surprising for a man who still likes to drive a speedboat and went skydiving last year at age 83.

How about Ronald Reagan, who used to recreate Chicago Cubs games from the studio for an Iowa radio station, riding horseback?

And upon his death in 2006 we were reminded that Gerald Ford was a star center and linebacker on Michigan's 1932 and 1933 national championship teams.

Although none of the current candidates to become the First Fan will probably challenge Ford in the horse race for best athlete ever to become Commander-in-Chief, each does have some connection to sports, either on or off the playing field.

Click on each candidate to learn about their sports background."; spt_President08_sports[i++] = new Array("","Democrats","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "right", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); spt_President08_sports[i++] = new Array("","Barack Obama","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Interactives/_swf/Politics/candidate_issue_matrix/headshots/071004-barack-obama.htease.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Brian Snyder", "Reuters", "110", "110", "#000000", "", "", "", ""); spt_President08_sports[i-1].body = "

  • The first gym rat in the White House?

    According to the New York Times, Obama is a \"wily player of pickup basketball, the version of the game with unspoken rules, no referee and lots of elbows.\"

    Obama, who has been shooting hoops all his life and recently told Sports Illustrated the game was his \"first love,\" had a Julius Erving poster plastered on his bedroom wall, according to the Times.

    In “Dreams From My Father,” Obama described basketball as a comfort to a boy whose father was mostly absent, and who was one of only a few black youths at his high school in Hawaii, where he helped Punahou win the state title in 1979. “At least on the basketball court I could find a community of sorts,” he wrote.

    Craig Robinson, Obama’s brother-in-law, told the Times: “He didn’t know who he was until he found basketball. It was the first time he really met black people.”

    Former NBA All-Star Rickey Green, who played basketball with Obama as part of a 2004 Senate campaign fund-raiser, said Obama is an \"above average\" player who has \"a nice little left-hand shot and some knowledge of the game.\"

  • Ridiculed for only bowling a 37 in seven frames during a campaign stop in Pennslyvania in late March. Obama said he hadn't bowled since Jimmy Carter was president.

  • According to the Times, Obama likes to run on treadmills at hotel gyms for exercise.

  • Before entering the race, Obama's office announced on Dec. 11, 2006 that the Illinois senator would make an \"announcement\" that evening \"about an upcoming contest of great importance to the American people.\"

    Having some fun with all the political hype, Obama taped the introduction to ESPN's \"Monday Night Football\" game between his hometown Chicago Bears and the St. Louis Rams.

    \"So tonight I'd like to put all the doubts to rest. And tonight, after a lot of thought and a good deal of soul-searching, I would like to announce to my hometown of Chicago and all of America that I'm ready ...\"

    Pause.

    \"For the Bears to go all the way!\"

  • Says President Bush should boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics if China does not take steps to help stop genocide in Darfur and improve human rights in Tibet.

  • Mike Ditka strongly considered seeking the Republican nomination in the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois that Obama ultimately won.

  • Brother-in-law is new Oregon State basketball coach Craig Robinson.

  • Running mate Joe Biden, a senator from Delaware, once said he came to the University of Delaware in 1961 as a “half-baked halfback,” playing on the freshman football team.

  • So which was it? On the campaign trail, Obama said on separate occasions that he was rooting for the Phillies and the Rays in the World Series.

  • Major League Baseball agreed to push back the start time of the resumed start time of Wednesday's suspended Game 5 of the World Series by eight minutes to allow Obama to purchase a half-hour of air time on the Fox network."; spt_President08_sports[i++] = new Array("","Republicans","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); spt_President08_sports[i++] = new Array("","John McCain","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Interactives/_swf/Politics/Debates2008/img/JohnMcCain.htease.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "Erik Jacobs /The New York Times/", "Redux Pictures", "110", "90", "#000000", "", "", "", ""); spt_President08_sports[i-1].body = "

  • Earned two varsity letters for wrestling in high school, but boxing has always been his favorite sport. At the Naval Academy, he competed as a lightweight for three years. While he was lacking in skills he was fearless, telling Newsweek in 2007 that he \"didn't have a reverse gear.\"

  • McCain, who attended the Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather fight in May, has pushed hard over his years in the Senate to fight corruption in boxing and improve the plight of beaten-down fighters.

  • Has played a leading role on Senate Commerce Committee's investigation into steroids in sports. Late in 2004, McCain gave both the owners and players in Major League Baseball until January 2005 to revamp their collective-bargaining agreement to address the issue or he would introduce federal legislation to toughen drug testing in the sport.

  • Wants to ban gambling on college sports and do away with Internet gambling.

  • Says he wouldn't have attended the Olympics' opening in Beijing, if he were president, unless China had made concessions toward Tibet and the Dalai Lama.

  • Wife Cindy and her children own a minority stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks. The team's chief executive, Jeff Moorad, and former majority owner Jerry Colangelo are McCain fundraisers. Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, a former Diamondback player, appeared in a New Hampshire campaign advertisement for McCain.

  • Running mate Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, was a point guard and captain of the Wasilla High basketball team. She helped the team win the Alaska small-school championship in 1982, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds of the game, despite having an ankle stress fracture at the time. She earned the nickname \"Sarah Barracuda\" because of her intense play. Currently, Palin hunts, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles and likes to run, having once completed a marathon. Palin was also once a sports anchor on television in Alaska.

  • One of the most popular lines from Palin's largely well-received vice presidental acceptance speech was \"You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick.\"

  • Todd Palin, husband of running mate Sarah Palin, is a four-time winner of the world's longest snowmachine race. In this year's 2,000-mile Tesoro Iron Dog contest, Palin and racing partner Scott Davis were trying to defend their 2007 championship when Palin broke his arm in a crash. It was 400 miles from the finish line, but he refused to quit, coming in fourth, cheered on by the parka-clad governor waving a checkered flag."; spt_President08_sports[i++] = new Array("","Others","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); spt_President08_sports[i++] = new Array("","Charles Baldwin","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); spt_President08_sports[i-1].body = "

  • The Constitution Party nominee said this in 2003:

    \"Some people work all week so they can follow their favorite college football team to wherever they are playing. Understand that this goes on for as long as the season lasts. The time, money, and energy that goes into such fanaticism is incalculable.

    \"Sports in America has become more than a past-time. It is a religion. It is a religion that demands countless hours and financial contributions from its worshippers. More than that, sports (and many other distractions) have become an excuse for freeborn men and women to acquiesce their God-given responsibility to be a knowledgeable and informed citizenry capable of self-government.\"

    "; spt_President08_sports[i++] = new Array("","Bob Barr","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); spt_President08_sports[i-1].body = "

  • The Libertarian nominee has blasted calls to regulate professional wrestling.

  • According to his official web site 'the inordinately high salaries paid team-based professional athletes, and the society that tolerates if not condones outrageous behavior on their part, coupled with team owners who value gate receipts above sportsmanship -- not lack of government regulations -- are the root causes of the problem in professional sports.'

  • Cited former Durham (N.C.) District Attorney Mike Nifong, who charged three Duke lacrosse athletes with rape in a case that was later dismissed, as a prime example of 'prosecutorial abuse' in the country.

  • The Libertarian vice presidental nominee is no stranger to some sports fans. Among Wayne Allen Root's many occupations is professional sports handicapper. Root, who has a star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars, began his handicapping career in New York City on WNBC (now WFAN) in the early 1980s. Root, who graduated along with Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama from Columbia University in 1983, later hosted a Financial News Network show that included Jimmy \"The Greek\" Snyder."; spt_President08_sports[i++] = new Array("","Cynthia McKinney","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); spt_President08_sports[i-1].body = "

  • Running mate Rosa Clemente apparently is not related to the late Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente.
    "; spt_President08_sports[i++] = new Array("","Ralph Nader","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); spt_President08_sports[i-1].body = "
  • Yes, he's decided to run again.

    While it's not sure how many states he'll be able to get on the ballot, it's clear the independent is a big NBA fan.

    Nader, who founded the non-profit organization 'League of Fans' in 2001, has complained to commissioner David Stern about the quality of officiating and urged LeBron James to speak out about Nike's controversial use of foreign labor to make their products.

  • Nader ripped the Red Sox in 2000 when plans for a $600 million replacement park for Fenway Park were discussed.

  • Nader wrote on thirdworldtraveler.com that he wishes voters were like sports fans \"sports fans do their homework. They know the statistics of the players and teams are deeply involved in analyzing strategies and tactics on the playing filed. To them the game is a study not a hunch or knee jerk reaction. The looks, smiles, big salaries and rhetoric of the players mean nothing unless they are based on performance. Fans also look forward, thinking about foreseeing and forestalling their opposing team's adjustments and responses.
    The same cannot be said about most voters. Half of them do not even know the name of their member of Congress. Half of them do not even come to the game on Election Day to register their opinion.\"

  • According to Time, he umpired a softball game among members of Jimmy Carter's campaign team during the 1976 campaign."; // END editorial data