Barack Obama threw the ceremonial opening pitch at the 80th Major League Baseball All-Star Game last night – but his blushes were spared by a sympathetic catcher after the ball barely made home plate.

Mr Obama – continuing a presidential tradition that has lasted nearly a century – made plain where his allegiances lay as he took to the field, wearing jeans and a black jacket bearing the logo of his favourite team, the Chicago White Sox.

“Everyone knows I’m a White Sox fan,” Mr Obama explained afterwards. “My wife thinks I look cute in this jacket. Between those two things, why not?"

The crowd at the Busch Stadium cheered as he took the ball from Stan Musial, the retired St Louis Cardinals legend, and jogged to the pitcher’s mound.

But the left-handed President sent the loopy pitch so high into the air that the St Louis Cardinals star Albert Pujols had to bend forward and scoop it up from his toes to stop it hitting the ground. Mr Obama still pumped his fist in celebration, and trotted forwards to give Pujols a hug.

Asked if he had a good curve ball as a southpaw, Mr Obama said: “If I did, I wouldn’t have run for President", adding: “If anybody needs a lefty....”

The President who played basketball instead of baseball as a youth, admitted that he had practiced some throws in the White House Rose Garden on Monday with his aide Reggie Love.

“Some of these natural moves aren’t so natural for me," he joked.

The retired baseball legend Willie Mays flew to St Louis with Mr Obama for last night's game, and said he had given the President one piece of advice in throwing out the first pitch: "Follow through."

Mr Obama said he hoped that his throw would provide some good luck for his team, pointing out that after his only other ceremonial pitch, in the 2005 American League finals, the White Sox won eight games in a row to capture their first World Series crown since 1917.

He denied that supporting the Sox meant he had it in for the National League’s Chicago Cubs, who haven't won a championship in 101 years. “I’m not a Cubs hater. I just don’t root for them, that’s all," he said.

The Chicago Tribune was unimpressed. "As you would expect, President Barack Obama leaned to the left while making the ceremonial first pitch at Tuesday's All-Star game in St. Louis," it wrote.

"While he was lacking in style points on his short southpaw lob to home plate, he certainly made a striking fashion statement — not to mention showing his South Side sentiment — to the worldwide television audience."

The right-wing Weekly Standard said that his lack of knowledge of the game was painfully obvious. "There was nothing in his cool aspect or his broadcast-booth blarney to suggest a true love for the game, like that of, say, our 43rd president. This guy should stick to golfing, or, better yet, to kicking a soccer ball around the White House lawn. It suits him: more Europeanish, less Americanish," it's commentator sniffed.

The President made it clear that there was no bailout plan for struggling baseball clubs to match the billions that have been handed over to investment banks like Goldman Sachs. “We’re out of money,” he said with a laugh.

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