Bush, Mulroney Have a Ball at Baseball Summit

President Bush and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada met in a summit conference Tuesday that will go down in history--if it goes down at all--far less for what was declaimed and decided than for where it took place--the newest, most high-tech baseball park in the major leagues.

Although no records are kept on such matters, it is probably safe to assume that two powerful leaders have never met in a locale so oddly suited for political discourse.

Bush and Mulroney met and dined and talked to the press at various lounges and rooms of the SkyDome, home of the American League’s Toronto Blue Jays, for four hours before the game with the Texas Rangers began.

Several significant issues were raised, among them the upcoming summit between Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Canadian-American free-trade agreement, acid rain and this summer’s economic summit in Houston.

But there are no real divisive issues between the two neighboring countries or between the two politicians, and it was hard to imagine that anything of great moment had been settled. It was a chance for review rather than pronouncement.

And baseball, as might be expected from the site of the sessions, seemed to intrude everywhere.

Mulroney, for example, could not keep from boasting at a joint news conference that the Blue Jays would “inflict terrible damage” on the Rangers in their home opener.

Bush, in mock retaliation, told everyone in the Texas locker room later that, in view of what Mulroney had said, he was rooting for the Rangers, a team owned in part by the President’s eldest son, George Walker Bush.

The President wore a Texas jacket and Mulroney a Toronto jacket as they threw out the first balls, lobs that hit the catchers’ mitts but had little power or spin on them.

Domestic Canadian politics intruded on the opening game ceremonies twice. The Toronto crowd booed lustily when a trio of singers known as Blue Rodeo sang a verse of the Canadian national anthem in French. The bilingual policy of the Canadian government has provoked an English-language-only campaign in parts of Ontario.

The crowd booed even more when Mulroney was introduced. The garrulous prime minister with a gift for silken speech has reached the nadir of his popularity in public opinion polls in Canada.

Bush and Mulroney then settled in to watch the game. They left after five innings of an eventual 2-1 Toronto victory. The President returned to Washington late Tuesday.

There were some serious moments at a joint news conference before the game. Bush, for example, said that while the foreign policy of a country does not depend on one individual, it is important to keep in mind that Gorbachev has “demonstrated an openness and a commitment to reform and openness inside that’s remarkable.”

Asked if he thought Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s intervention to help gain the release of a French-Belgian couple and their child could presage an improvement in U.S.-Libyan relations, Bush said: “If, indeed, a person deserves credit for facilitating the release of people held against their will--anyone in the world--I would certainly say, fine, give the person credit. I don’t know enough about the facts of this release.”

But, at least publicly, the day belonged to baseball. The President was grinning as Texas Manager Bobby Valentine led him and the prime minister through the visitors’ locker room before the game.

The President shook everyone’s hand and stopped to chat with ace pitcher Nolan Ryan.

“Good start,” he told Ryan, who gave up no hits in five innings in his victory over Toronto in the Rangers’ home opener Monday.

The President also grabbed the night’s starter for Texas, knuckleballer Charlie Hough, and announced, “I’ve got to talk to him about my pitch.” But, if Hough gave him any pointers, it was not evident in Bush’s opening throw a few minutes later.

In the Toronto locker room, Bush came upon players holding baseballs for him to autograph. The President signed for all who asked but warned, “I hope you have some balls left to play with.”

When photographers asked Bush and Mulroney to pose with Toronto slugger George Bell, the Dominican player turned to the President and said, “You’re used to cameras, too?”

Long before the President arrived in Toronto, he had baseball on his mind. Talking with reporters aboard Air Force One, Bush, accompanied by Commissioner of Baseball Fay Vincent, fielded questions about Lithuania and nuclear disarmament.

And he even offered a bit of news when he told them that, unlike Secretary of State James A. Baker III and White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, he was not disappointed by the results of Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze’s visit to Washington last week. But the impatient President finally wondered aloud if anyone was ever going to ask him questions about the great national pastime. That immediately elicited a flurry of questions about baseball.

Should we call it the national pastime in Canada?

“Well, I think we want to get them to buy into that definition,” the President replied. “That’s why we’re going.”

Are you going to throw a curve?

“I’m going to go with a slider this time,” Bush said. “I’ve had such good luck in the last couple of years. The catcher let me down one time when he couldn’t get into the dirt and grab it properly.”

Are you working on your stuff, Mr. President?

“No, no. Nolan will handle the fast one, and I’ll go with the stuff.”