Introductions

Prevented from throwing out the first ball by protective netting newly strung in front of the grandstand, George V strolled down onto the field to meet the two team’s captains and personally present the ball to the umpire. First, however, he borrowed a fountain pen to autograph the baseball, which was set aside for presentation later to American President Woodrow Wilson. A British paper published a cheeky poem:

King George the Third with cannon balls
did try our brothers to dispatch;
King George the Fifth the country calls
to watch with him their baseball match!