WASHINGTON (AP) – It was an all-day party amid cheers, chants and popping flashbulbs, highlighted by President Bush’s zinger of a first pitch and old-timers yielding the field to Washington’s new team.

Major league baseball returned Thursday to a city that had gone 12,250 days – since the Senators left in 1971 – without hosting a regular-season game. The Washington Nationals’ home opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks was a joyous exclamation point for celebrations that began 6 months ago with the announcement that the Montreal Expos were heading south.

“Baseball is back, and happy days are here again!” proclaimed 77-year-old former Senators public address announcer Charlie Brotman, who returned to preside over one more home opener.

Even the result was a happy one, a 5-3 victory that moved the Nationals into sole possession of first place in the NL East. The stands literally shook as fans cheered a three-run rally in the fourth inning.

Washington baseball fans waited 34 years for baseball to return, and Bush restored a 95-year-old tradition of presidents throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at the local team’s first home game. He was cheered as he waved to the crowd and to players while walking to the mound, then he toed the rubber and quickly fired a pitch over the plate – slightly high, perhaps – to Nationals catcher Brian Schneider.

Many who had tough-to-get tickets for the game missed the moment because security lines for the metal detectors, installed just for the president’s visit, were still 20 deep when the game started. Anyone watching on television also missed the president’s pitch because it came during a commercial break – even though the timeline for the ceremonies had been available well in advance.

Then a lineup of Senators took positions – slugger Frank Howard, in left field, got the biggest ovation as he tipped his cap – and handed gloves to the Nationals players when the modern-day lineup ran onto the field.

“I’m numb. I’m raking it all in,” said two-time batting champion Mickey Vernon, who turns 87 next week and was stationed at first base. “It’s been a long while coming, but for those with patience, something good comes along.”

Flashbulbs sparkled when Washington’s Livan Hernandez threw the first real pitch, a strike to Craig Counsell. The ball was immediately taken out of play to be preserved for posterity.

The fun started seven hours before game time, when players were serenaded with chants of “Lets go, Nats!” at a $1,500-per-table VIP luncheon hosted by NBC’s Tim Russert. The Nationals players, travel-weary after arriving the night before following a nine-game road trip, chuckled and otherwise tolerated endless photo-ops with big-name sponsors before being led into the hall by a high school marching band to the cheers of 1,000 of the city’s top businessmen and political figures.

Needless to say, the players never got this kind of treatment in Montreal, where crowds were small and some “home” games were farmed out to Puerto Rico to boost revenue, but they also looked like a group that couldn’t wait for the hype to die down.

“It’s a lot of stuff we’re not used to,” outfielder Brad Wilkerson said. “Montreal seemed so much easier. It’s taxing, but I’d rather have it that way than no recognition at all.”

President Bush’s first pitch came 95 years to the day after William Howard Taft tossed out a ball before a Senators-Athletics game on April 14, 1910.

Bush, a former part-owner of the Texas Rangers, was the 12th president given the honor of throwing out a first pitch in Washington, and the first since Richard Nixon in 1969. After the Senators left, presidents performed the ceremony in other cities.

The Nationals had the scoreboard ready: The name George W. Bush was written with the “W” in curly script, mimicking the design on the Nationals’ hats.

“Somebody said, How do you describe the presidency?’ I said it is a decision-making job. I’ve got a decision to make today. Do I go with a fastball or do I go with a slider?” President Bush said at a meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors before the game.

The Nationals were the last team to play a home game this season, which is probably for the best given the compressed schedule for renovating the stadium. Officials are still trying to figure out how to keep the new batting tunnel from flooding.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that Nationals arrived in town with a winning record, even though they are playing with much of the same roster that finished last in 2004 in Montreal.

“Believe me, this club will not finish last in the National League East,” manager Frank Robinson said. “I’ve heard people say this is the Montreal Expos in Washington Nationals uniforms. Those people don’t know what they’re talking about. They are not the Montreal Expos in Washington Nationals uniforms. They are the Washington Nationals.”