BALTIMORE -- With the president overseas on this Opening Day in Major League Baseball, Vice President Joe Biden took on the role of baseball fan-in-chief as he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Camden Yards this afternoon.

Biden was met with a mix of cheers and jeers as he took the field before the Orioles home opener. Maybe they were Republicans, or were upset not to see the top dog. Or maybe the Bronx cheers were the result of so many New York fans invading Baltimore to see the Yankees play. Heck, they might have just been cheering, "Jooooooe."

Either way, the reception was by many accounts warmer than the one his predecessor, Dick Cheney, received at RFK Stadium in 2006, or the boos that greeted Mark Teixeira when he was introduced today in his home state wearing Yankee pinstripes.

The vice president did get more kudos as he threw a respectable looper from the mound, received smoothly by catcher Chad Moeller. He was joined on the field by his grandchildren as well as representatives from Major League Baseball's RBI program.

During the 2008 campaign, then-Senator Biden was a vocal supporter of the Philadephia Phillies; his wife, Jill, was on hand for the Series clinching Game 5. His final event of the campaign was an Election-eve rally in Philadelphia, which featured Jimmy Rollins as the city was still basking in a World Series title.

"If Barack Obama's the Jimmy Rollins of the ticket I feel like Jamie Moyer," he said that night.

During his own campaign for president, Biden occasionally came on stage to John Fogarty's "Center Field." And just after being tapped as Barack Obama's running mate, he took the stage at a joint rally at a minor league ballpark in Michigan and announced: "Folks, my name is Joe Biden. I used to play center field. Not as well as I wanted to."

Though he did play baseball as a child, he was a better football player, and suited up as a freshman at the University of Delaware.

The vice president will take in at least a few innings of the Yankees-Orioles game, splitting time between some seats and the owner's box (Peter Angelos is a long-time Democratic donor).

"He wants to stay for the entire game, but may leave a bit before the end so he doesn't tie up traffic," Biden spokesperson Jay Carney said.

The VP is also spending some time in the broadcast booth, telling the announcers on the local Mid Atlantic Sports Network that the Obama administration "got out of the box pretty quick."