updated 6:57 p.m. ET April 11, 2006

WASHINGTON - Greeted with loud boos and some cheers, Vice President Dick Cheney threw out the ceremonial first pitch Tuesday at the Washington Nationals’ home opener.

He stood directly in front of the mound and released a ball that hit the dirt in front of home plate. Nationals catcher Brian Schneider scooped it up.

Cheney wore a red-and-blue Nationals jacket that seemed bulky, perhaps filled out by a bulletproof vest. Security agents ringed the top edge of the outdoor stadium.

There was plenty of pomp before the Nationals played the New York Mets to start their second season at home. Opera star Placido Domingo sang the national anthem, four military jets screeched overhead and a burst of fireworks filled the sky on the brilliantly sunny day.

The vice president visited both clubhouses before the game, won by the Mets 7-1.

New York third baseman David Wright said he was thrilled to meet Cheney and shrugged off the booing.

“When you’ve got 50 percent of America that’s Republican, 50 percent that’s Democrat, you’re probably going to get mixed reviews,” Wright said.

Last year, the capital’s first with a baseball team since 1971, President Bush tossed out the first pitch at the home opener. Many fans were late to their seats because security lines at metal detectors — installed for the president’s visit — were still 20 deep when the game began.

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Cheney became the eighth sitting vice president to open a home season by throwing out the first pitch for a Washington team. James Sherman inaugurated the tradition in 1912, and the last to do so was Hubert Humphrey in 1968.

Other vice presidents who have thrown the first pitch in Washington were Thomas Marshall in 1917 and again in 1920, Charles Dawes in 1926, John Garner in 1939, Henry Wallace in 1942 and 1944, and Richard Nixon in 1959. Humphrey did the honors in 1966 and 1968.

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