Shrugging off new terror threats, President Bush traveled to a packed and patriotic Yankee Stadium on Tuesday to open the third game of baseball's World Series with a perfect strike. 
Hardly tough duty for the nation's No. 1 fan, attending the game was an important gesture for Bush, who has advocated Americans defy terrorism by leading normal lives in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 suicide plane attacks. 
Three F-14 fighters roared over the red, white and blue festooned ballpark. After a moment's silence for those who lost their lives last month and for U.S. forces deployed overseas, a huge flag was carried onto center field by 60 cadets from the West Point military academy. "America Fears Nobody -- Play Ball," read a sign in the upper deck. 
A bald eagle released from atop the scoreboard swooped gracefully to the pitchers' mound. Bush stepped up wearing a a navy Fire Department of New York windbreaker. He tossed the ceremonial pitch across the plate and into the glove of Yankee catcher Jorge Posada, winning hearty hugs and backslaps from two of the game's greats, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford. 
"This is part of the balance our society is coming to understand, that as threats are received, as security is beefed up, it similarly is important for (Americans) to go about their normal life," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "No one has ever been able to make the American people cower." 
As Bush left the White House, he told reporters he hoped the series would go the full seven games, and by the time he boarded the presidential aircraft at Andrews Air Force Base, he was limbering up his right arm. 
Since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Bush has urged Americans to go about business as usual, to take vacations, to fly again and to go to ballparks, all the while remaining on alert. 
But the only norms in New York, where about 4,500 people died at the World Trade Center, are that this is October and the Yankees are in major league baseball's World Series again. 
The federal government on Monday issued a second warning that there may be new terror attacks on the United States or its interests over the next week. The alert came amid a spate of anthrax incidents that killed three people and left many fearing more assaults could include biological warfare. 
The World Trade Center is still smoldering, the dead are still being mourned and New Yorkers are still coming to grips with the gaping hole in their skyline left after the 110-story twin towers were demolished by two hijacked aircraft. 
The legendary Yankees, World Series winners four out of the past five years, are in a 0-2 hole to the Arizona Diamondbacks, an upstart expansion team. They were two games down to the Atlanta Braves in the best-of-seven World Series five years ago and stormed back to win four in a row. 
Security for Bush's visit -- the first game of this series to be played in New York -- was tight. Metal detectors and other checks delayed many fans getting to their seats and the lines outside the stadium were long. Backpacks were confiscated. 
Law enforcement sources said almost 2,000 police officers on foot, horseback and motorcycles were on duty in and around the Bronx ballpark, snipers were stationed on nearby rooftops and bomb-sniffing dogs were used. 
Bush flew into John F. Kennedy International Airport and then by helicopter along the East River against the backdrop of Manhattan's skyline, landing just yards from Yankee Stadium. 
A former part-owner of the Texas Rangers who never saw his ball club go to a World Series, Bush has not been a fan of the Yankees in the past. But if he was hoping for a Diamondbacks' victory, it remained a diplomatic secret. 
Fleischer, a die-hard Yankee supporter, dodged the delicate issue, telling reporters, "The president at tonight's game will be proudly rooting for the Texas Rangers." 
Bush's visit to New York rounded out a presidential triple header. Earlier this year, he attended Little League Baseball's World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. 
A lifelong fan, Bush brought baseball -- or at least a child's version of it -- to the White House South Lawn in the spring, hosting T-Ball games between teams of local children too young for Little League. 
In March, he held a Baseball Hall of Fame lunch at the White House for about 50 of the game's greatest players. A few months later, Bush, who said he once dreamed of being like celebrated Giants' center fielder Willie Mays but never president, became the first chief executive to be inducted into the Little League Hall of Excellence.