WASHINGTON — The Wash­ing­ton Nation­als are mak­ing their pitch to Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden.

The Nats have invit­ed Biden to toss out the cer­e­mo­ni­al first ball next sea­son on open­ing day. Wash­ing­ton is sched­uled to host the New York Mets at Nation­als Park on April 1.

“We’re excit­ed to con­tin­ue the long-stand­ing tra­di­tion of sit­ting Pres­i­dents throw­ing out the first pitch at the home of the nation­al pas­time in our nation’s cap­i­tal,” the team post­ed on Twit­ter this weekend.

Biden last threw out a first ball as vice pres­i­dent, in 2009 when the Bal­ti­more Ori­oles host­ed the New York Yan­kees on open­ing day at Cam­den Yards. The right-han­der threw a high fast­ball that brought O’s catch­er Chad Moeller out of his crouch.

Biden, a Lit­tle League short­stop who lat­er played cen­ter, has fre­quent­ly been around ball­fields. He saw the Phillies a few times in the post­sea­son, includ­ing the 2009 World Series, watched Philadel­phia play at Wash­ing­ton in 2012, has vis­it­ed the Yan­kees at spring train­ing and attend­ed the Lit­tle League World Series.

William Howard Taft began the tra­di­tion of pres­i­dents throw­ing out the first pitch in Wash­ing­ton in 1910. Since then, every sit­ting pres­i­dent except Don­ald Trump has thrown out a first pitch when Wash­ing­ton had a major league franchise.

Trump attend­ed Game 5 of the 2019 World Series at Nation­als Park and was booed when intro­duced as Hous­ton played Washington.

When there wasn’t a team in Wash­ing­ton, Ger­ald Ford, Jim­my Carter, Ronald Rea­gan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clin­ton tossed base­balls while in office at oth­er big league parks.