‘He didn’t enjoy it that much’: what happened when Prince Charles went to a baseball game in 1970 | US news

In the lead-up to then Prince Charles’s first official White House visit 56 years ago, the Washington Post published a story headlined: Baseball: A Guide for Royal Visitors.

“Prince Charles and Princess Anne of England will attend a baseball game when they come to America next month. No doubt, their Royal Highnesses will be baffled by the whole thing,” wrote Henry Owen in a 21 June 1970 story. “They will be too polite to say so, but later on, in the privacy of the embassy, they will probably ask their attendants: ‘Why do people go to baseball games?’”

Owen wasn’t too far off, as Prince Charles did appear baffled as he took in a Washington Senators game at RFK stadium. Luckily for Charles, now the king of UK, he will not have to repeat the experience, because Washington’s baseball team, now the Nationals, will be playing in New York during his visit to Washington this week.

On Saturday 18 July 1970, Charles, 21, and his sister, Anne, 19, saw the American League’s last-place Senators host the California Angels at Robert F Kennedy Memorial stadium. With them were Richard Nixon’s daughters, Julie and Tricia, and Julie’s husband, David Eisenhower, grandson of former president Dwight D Eisenhower. That summer, David Eisenhower was working in the Senators’ front office.

The Nixon family members hosted the royals for the trip, and that morning, they visited the Patuxent Center for Wildlife Research and Propagation of Endangered Animal Species, where Charles asked several questions about America’s environmental movement. The trip also included visits to Capitol Hill, museums and Camp David.

At the ballpark, the four sat right behind the dugout, in the hot sun.

“The baseball game was not very well planned actually, and I would say this was not one of Prince Charles’s highlights,” Eisenhower recalled in an interview with the Guardian. “First of all, I had to explain the game to him; he didn’t know anything about it. And second, this was mid-July, and in the afternoon, so you can imagine how hot it was. Third, the crowd was sparse. They didn’t promote the idea that Charles was going to be there, probably for security reasons.” The Senators, who drew small crowds and would leave for Texas after the 71 season, had only around 8,500 fans at the game, about 1,500 below their average attendance.

“So it felt sort of empty and then fourth, it was a pitcher’s duel,” Eisenhower added. “How can you explain the game if you’re watching a shutout? And so the whole thing was stressful and I think probably he didn’t enjoy it that much, but he was a very nice guy.”

The Post reported that “the VIP party baked in Washington’s relentless July sun for only an inning. Then, apparently on the suggestion of Charles, they transferred to a roofed field box for the next four. They left after eight hits, next to no excitement, two unearned Senators runs, and the thermometer registered 91 degrees”.

Charles appeared confused by the sport’s rules, wondering why a foul ball hit by Washington slugger Mike Epstein into the stands wasn’t a home run.

As the New York Times recounted, Eisenhower “explained the differences between hits and strikes, walks and runs as the party sat in box seats and later in the shaded mezzanine at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium”.

Epstein, the Senators’ second-best hitter that season, told the Times that the royals looked “very British. I’d say he’s sitting pretty. I’d like to have his money. A classy guy, but you gotta be when you’re sitting on that throne.”

For visitors taking in their first game, a home run is probably the most exciting play to witness, and the game did feature one homer. But by the time Washington’s Aurelio Rodríguez smashed his over the left-field wall in the eighth inning, the royals had long gone.

“Charles appeared very studious throughout the game, won by Washington, 4 to 0,” the Post reported. “He smiled only when the Senators scored and when a fan made a clean catch of a high foul into the upper deck.” The paper reported that both Charles and Anne were “apparently surprised by the playing of the British national anthem – after the American – before the game. Both stood stiffly through it, but did not sing the words.”

Charles sat next to Tricia, 24, a day after they danced together at a White House supper. In a 2021 CNN interview, Charles recalled: “That was quite amusing, I must say. That was the time when they were trying to marry me off to Tricia Nixon.” (She wound up getting married to Edward Cox the following June).

It also happened to be camera day at the ballpark, a promotion that allowed children in attendance with a “Brownie Hawkeye” to photograph their favorite players.

“If Charles was aghast at the numbers of photographers who greeted him at the White House Thursday, he couldn’t have picked a day when more shutterbugs would be at a ball game,” the Post observed. Many of the kids “saved a couple of shots for the prince and princess, but were politely turned away by the Secret Service. However, many players took their own photos with their own cameras.”

After the game, Charles met with Nixon for more than an hour at the White House, where they discussed issues including the environment, young peoples’ attitudes and world population challenges. Then they had a farewell dinner with the Nixon family.

When they said goodbye, Nixon, a huge baseball fan, urged Charles to “come see another Senators’ game; it’s the first one they’ve won in four days”.

The Washington Post’s Owen ended his baseball guide for royal visitors with an acknowledgment that baseball’s lure is difficult to quantify.

“The plain truth is that baseball, like the British monarchy, is a mixture of tradition and sentiment which is hard to explain,” he wrote. “Perhaps that is why both institutions have survived and why it’s as hard to think of America without baseball as it is to think of the United Kingdom without a monarch.”