Stepping up to the plate

US President Barack Obama has marked the opening of the American baseball season by throwing the ceremonial first pitch. Obama is just the latest in the long line of American presidents who have taken to the field since President William Tuft first did so in 1910. But perhaps this is a tradition that should have a wider currency, outside the United States and beyond baseball. Vladimir Putin might be keen to show his familiarity with firearms by firing the first shot of the hunting season. Or optimists might hope for the day when Fidel Castro, who famously played golf with Che Guevara , could celebrate the end of the US trade embargo by making the first swing at the US Masters. Former prime minister Tony Blair is back on the campaign trail : if he wishes to serve again, perhaps as a keen tennis player, he should open Wimbledon. While UK politicians don't as a rule have quite the same athletic physiques as Obama and Putin, Gordon Brown and David Cameron are both running these days (and not just for office). Maybe the next British prime minister should take a lap with the Olympic torch to inaugurate the London games in 2012. Which other world leaders would you like to see showing their sporting prowess in the line of duty?