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The Washington Nationals are returning to the baseball diamond and they’re bringing along a new ringer: Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Describing the nation’s leading infectious disease expert as a “Nats super-fan,” the team said that it was “thrilled to announce” that Fauci had accepted its invitation to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for their opening game on Thursday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, wears a Washington Nationals face covering as he arrives during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on June 30, 2020. (AL DRAGO/AFP via Getty Images)
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, wears a Washington Nationals face covering as he arrives during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on June 30, 2020. (AL DRAGO/AFP via Getty Images)

“Dr. Fauci has been a true champion for our country during the Covid-19 pandemic and throughout his distinguished career, so it is only fitting that we honor him as we kick off the 2020 season and defend our World Series Championship title,” the team said in a statement posted to Twitter on Monday.

The first pitch is a big deal considering that the Nationals’ opening game has been long awaited by fans after the MLB season was put on hold back in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s perhaps an even bigger deal considering that President Trump, whose administration has repeatedly tried to discredit Fauci, has yet to throw his own first pitch, making him the first president to skip the tradition since President William Howard Taft started it back in 1910.

There was some talk of Trump throwing the first pitch at last year’s World Series game, but he balked at the idea, saying that he would have to wear “a lot of heavy armor” to make such an appearance.

“I’ll look too heavy. I don’t like that,” he said at the time.

“It’s been in Ohio as early as the mid-1850s at least, brought in as an ornamental plant because of its unique foliage and white flowers,” Gardner said. “It was actually planted in people’s landscaping, and it has been spreading.”

Instead, celebrity chef José Andrés, a prominent Trump critic, threw out the first pitch as Trump watched in the stands.

Thursday’s opening game against the New York Yankees will be played in an empty ballpark without fans. The MLB is encouraging players on opposite teams not to socialize or come within six feet of each other before or after the game.

Spitting of any kind is also not allowed.