President Coolidge throwing out the first pitch, Griffith Stadium, as the Senators host the Giants, October 1924. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

While not a collector of the Presidential Pez dispensers nor of past Presidential bobbleheads, the objects produced by the White House Historical Association — first in the shape of a very beautiful ornament earning a prominent place on any tree this Christmas, and now in partnership with the Washington Nationals, the Coolidge bobblehead, may require that I make a couple exceptions to that informal rule.

While Coolidge, no doubt with a twinkle in his eye and tongue firmly in cheek, was eager for the city of Washington to get back to an efficient use of people’s time following the pennant win in October of 1924, he praised the “knights of the bat and ball” who had secured a much deserved victory and baseball’s highest honor. Truly, the team had the entire nation behind it, play by play, to the last inning. “While baseball remains our national game our national tastes will be on a higher level and our national ideals on a firmer foundation.”

Also, take a moment and get your Coolidge ornament in time for Christmas here.