WASHINGTON -- President Bush welcomed the Toronto Blue Jays to the White House Wednesday as the first team outside the United States to win the World Series -- and then made a post-election pitch for a job.
'If you need a good fielding first baseman, I'm your man,' joked Bush, 68, a former Yale first baseman. He will become unemployed Jan. 20 when Bill Clinton takes over the presidency.
Bush has appeared glum at several public appearances since being rejected by voters for a second term. But the players drew a big smile from the president, who gushed, 'This is the most fun I've had since the election.'
He presented Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston with a gift: a baseball card showing Bush as captain of Yale's baseball teams during the 1947 and 1948 seasons. Yale lost in the finals of the College World Series both years. Bush was known as a good-fielding, light-hitting first baseman.
'I'm going to give you this baseball card,' he told the Blue Jays' manager. 'This is a rookie ballplayer who needs a job.'
Gaston didn't offer the president a contract, but he presented him with a Toronto Blue Jays jersey with the number 1 on the back, beneath the word, 'Bush.'
The president noted that he rooted for the Atlanta Braves during the World Series, but praised the Blue Jays for winning 'fair and square' as the first non-U.S.-owned team to capture the championship.
'You all became national heroes as well as cultural ambassadors and you did it with class,' he said.
'Both personally and on behalf of the United States, I salute you,' he said.
'In a larger sense, I want to salute all of baseball, a game that I have loved since my Dad took me to my first game, I think it was in Yankee Stadium, many, many years ago.'
