BY TRADITION the President of the United States or his representative signals the beginning of the major league baseball season by throwing out the first ball.
Although I regret that I cannot be at Kennedy Stadium in Washington for this opening game, I am very proud that my representative is Master Sergeant Daniel L. Pitzer of the United States Army. No President has ever been better represented than I am today.
For four long years, Sergeant Pitzer was a prisoner of the Viet Cong in South Vietnam. As he performs this American ritual of throwing out the first ball, he does so as a reminder that there are still a great many of our men in uniform-some sixteen hundred of them--who have not seen a ball game in a long time, much less seen their homes or their families. Like Sergeant Pitzer, they are brave American men who risked their lives in serving their country. And they still are missing in action in Southeast Asia or are held prisoner in North Vietnam, South Vietnam or Laos.
Sergeant Pitzer stands before you as a symbol of our deep and continuing national concern for the plight of these young men--and of our national determination to hasten the day when they too can come home.
Note: The President's message was read by Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium. The text of the message was made available to the press at San Clemente, Calif.
M. Sgt. Pitzer of Fairview, W. Va., was released from captivity in South Vietnam on November 13, 1967. He was assigned to the Fifth Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, N.G.
The official party also included the sons and daughters of five U.S. military men who are missing in action or prisoners of war in Southeast Asia.
Richard Nixon, Message on the Opening of the 1971 Baseball Season. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241212