Press enter or click to view image in full sizePresident Ronald Reagan threw out the first pitch at a baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. (Image credit: Wikimedia).
Today, I received an unexpected phone call. The caller said: “Hi Avi, this is Kyle from the Astros.” My first inclination was to associate the caller with a group of astrophysicists, and so I asked: “Who are the Astros?” Kyle clarified that he is speaking on behalf of the Houston Astros and they are inviting me to throw the first pitch in their baseball game with the Toronto Blue Jays on August 3, 2026.
The ceremonial first pitch is a longstanding tradition in baseball in which a guest of honor throws a ball to mark the end of pregame festivities and the start of the game. The earliest recorded instance involving a political figure was in 1892, when future U.S. President William McKinley — then serving as the Governor of Ohio, tossed a ball onto the field from the stands during an opening game. Major League Baseball officially integrated the tradition during the Washington Senators’ Opening Day game on April 14, 1910 against the Philadelphia Athletics. The Senators owner invited President William Howard Taft to attend as a public relations move to establish baseball as America’s true national pastime. Following Taft, nearly every sitting U.S. president has thrown out at least one first pitch during or after their term, establishing a long-standing tie between the White House and the baseball diamond. A video compilation of these presidential first pitches is accessible here.
Press enter or click to view image in full sizeU.S. President Woodrow Wilson throws out the ball on opening day of baseball season, 1916. (Image credit: Wikimedia).
During an unannounced 1988 visit to a Baltimore Orioles game, President Ronald Reagan changed the tradition forever. Instead of staying in the box seats, he walked out onto the actual field and threw the pitch directly from the rubber to home plate. This established the modern format used today. Coincidentally, during the same year of 1988 I arrived in the U.S. as a result of leading the first international project supported by President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”). A year earlier, on September 21, 1987, President Reagan delivered an address to the 42nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York (accessible here), where he famously stated how quickly global conflicts would vanish if humanity faced an extraterrestrial threat.
These days, the guest of honor stands on or in front of the pitcher’s mound and throws towards home plate. The recipient of the pitch is usually a player from the home team. What started as a simple throw from the luxury box seats evolved into a highly anticipated pre-game ritual performed from the pitcher’s mound by world leaders, celebrities, and community heroes.
The Houston baseball team is called the Astros in honor of Houston’s status as the hub of the U.S. space program and its close proximity to NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Four years ago, I shared a stage with Vanessa Wyche, the Johnson Center director, at the International Women’s Forum in Las Vegas (as described here). NASA opened its Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston in 1961, establishing Houston’s identity as “Space City, U.S.A.” The official name assignment of the Houston Astros coincided with the 1965 move into their home stadium, the Astrodome. By now, they moved to a new stadium, called Daikin Park.
Kyle and I agreed that I will also give a brief update to the Astros fans about the preliminary findings of the UAP Science Advisory Council for the U.S. Government (https://uapsac.com/). Everybody wants to know whether we are being visited by alien probes.
Press enter or click to view image in full size(Image credit: Wikimedia).
In addition, a partner of the Houston Astros, Adam Ross Custom Clothiers, generously offered to make me a custom UAP-themed suit of my choice. Kyle explained that “Adam makes high-end custom suits for many celebrities and is a big fan of yours.” He shared a video snippet from Adam, accessible here.
Upon my arrival at Daikin Park on August 3, 2026, I will take part in a Batting Practice and wear a custom Space City Astros jersey before the start of the game at 7:10 PM local time.
The Astros theme song (posted here) is titled: “Go Go Astros!” If we ever meet aliens and arrange a baseball match with them, I will contact Kyle and insist on having the game at the Earth’s surface gravity of 1-gee in Daikin Park. The Universe will be rooting for our Astros.
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Before my morning jog at sunrise, I received an email from the manager of the UK singer Oli Swan who released a new song titled “Aliens Are real” (available here), inspired by my scientific research. The press release is available here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Press enter or click to view image in full size(Image Credit: Lotem Loeb, May 22, 2026)
Avi Loeb is chair of the UAP Science Advisory Council to the White House, Pentagon, FBI and intelligence agencies, director of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, former director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.
Professional website:
https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/
Social media:
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorAviLoeb
https://open.spotify.com/show/1zhndXkvSY2b8FdjspFpCd
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