It’s not every day that you see a member of the Royal Family at a ballpark, but that’s the sight we were treated to prior to the Twins-Mets game on Saturday.

Prince Harry stepped on to the mound with a Mets cap on his head and threw out the ceremonial first pitch. He made a good job of it as well.  It was a bit high, but it’s much better to serve up a bit of chin music than to leave the field to a chorus of groans having failed to reach the plate.  Jonny Gould always used to claim, somewhat mischievously, that members of the Royal Family watched ‘Baseball on 5’.

On that evidence, maybe Jonny was telling the truth after all?

It’s not the first time the Royal Family has shown an interest in the sport.  As Josh Chetwynd explains in ‘British Baseball and the West Ham Club’,  on 4 July 1918 King George V was one of 38,000 people, including Winston Churchill and the Prime Minister David Lloyd George, packed into Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge to watch a ballgame between the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy.

Prince Harry’s appearance was the second royal sporting visit of the week.  The Queen attended Wimbledon on Thursday for the first time in 33 years.  While the official line for her long absence was that she is always busy in the summer, many have suggested that Her Majesty is not much of a tennis fan.

Maybe she prefers baseball?

I’m sure she would be more than welcome at this year’s National Baseball Championships and she can bring Prince Harry along to throw out the first pitch.