Charles Phelps Taft, owner of the Philadelphia Phillies and brother of President William Howard Taft, told The Cincinnati Times-Star his brother’s visit to Chicago’s West Side Grounds for the September 16, 1909, Cubs-Giants game was meant to send a message to the American public:
Charles Phelps Taft
“That is one of the reasons why my brother attended (the game) just after starting on his long tour around the country…He wanted to put his stamp of approval upon what he and I regard as our country’s greatest outdoor institution for pleasure. He was as glad to shake hands with the players that day as they were to meet him. My brother is very fond of the game for the mere sake of personal enjoyment as well as to observe its bearing on the country at large.”
President Taft at West Side Grounds
Taft told the paper that he and the president were of the same opinion:
“Baseball…is strictly American in every particular. It deserves its great popularity because it is clean and wholesome. It offers opportunity for the rich boy, the poor boy, the educated boy and the uneducated boy. It is a democratic game for Americans. Professional baseball has an important effect upon the young men of the country. It offers to many of them the chance of quitting vacant lots, where unhappily, a number would otherwise become mere idlers.”
Baseball, Taft said, was aspirational:
“Once they become proficient enough as ball players to reach the big league they get an insight into the better things in life and immediately they become ambitious. They realize then what it means to neglect education. It stimulates them to go higher and higher, and when they return to their homes then stimulate those left behind by example.
“The future of baseball is in keeping the game clean. The players must be manly. The day is coming when so called toughness will be a thing of the past in baseball. The personnel of the players is improving every year and will continue to improve.
“Any game that can give the unfortunate youth of neglected training a chance to rub elbows with the boy from college on an even footing is a great game. Both the college boy and the less fortunate boy are benefitted. It is democracy.”
President Taft meets Giants catcher John “Chief” Meyers after the game in Chicago
When asked about his personal experience playing baseball, Taft, born in 1843,said:
“Oh, no, I got old before baseball got to be so popular.”
And about the president, fourteen years his junior:
“As to whether my brother played or not—well, I don’t really know whether he ever played at Yale. Anyway, we both like the game just as well as if we had played.”
Baseball History Daily 
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