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Attorney General Eric Holder will throw the ceremonial first pitch when the Washington Nationals take on the New York Mets in Washington, D.C. on Friday night. But figuring out which team he’ll be routing for can prove a bit difficult.

Holder is a longtime New York Mets fan, having played hooky to see one of the team’s first games at Shea Stadium near his childhood home in New York City. But later in life, he was a member in an investment group that placed an unsuccessful bid for the Washington Nationals baseball team.

A Justice Department spokeswoman didn’t know which, if any, team uniform Holder will wear on the mound. But it’s fair to say a Mets uniform wouldn’t help his relatively low poll numbers ^[2], at least in the D.C. area. It might, however, score him some points in his native New York, where his original decision to try those behind the Sept. 11 attacks proved unpopular.

Earlier this year, Paul Clement, a former Solicitor General from June 2005 through June 2008 and now a partner at King & Spalding ^[3], joked at an awards ceremony ^[4] that Holder’s ill-fated attempt to buy the Nationals was a demonstration of his commitment to the D.C. area.

“I’ve never heard an introduction that included my ill-fated attempt to buy the Nationals,” Holder responded. “This is why this man was Solicitor General of the United States. That’s impressive research.”