Popular memory has been unkind to William Howard Taft, twenty-seventh President of the United States, who surely would have wished to be remembered for something nobler than his weight. At 300 pounds, he is the heaviest commander-in-chief on record. It's the rare biographical sketch that doesn't mention the giant bathtub — spacious enough to accommodate four average-sized men — specially built for him in the White House.
Baseball history has accorded him somewhat more dignity, for it was Taft, 100 years ago this month, who launched the tradition of the Presidential first pitch on opening day.
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