MLB.com -- the same place that soon will be showing live World Baseball Classic, Spring Training and Major League Baseball regular-season games -- will offer a live stream Tuesday of Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration. It will be free for everyone who can't be part of the scene in Washington, and especially useful for those who are at work, but don't want to miss the swearing-in ceremony.

The MLB.com Inauguration Special begins at 9 a.m. ET with streams of six past Presidential Inaugurations, including John F. Kennedy (1961), Lyndon B. Johnson (1965), Jimmy Carter (1977), Ronald Reagan (1981), George H. W. Bush (1989) and Bill Clinton (1993), each of whom has participated in the time-honored tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a Major League game. It continues with a live "pregame show," hosted by Vinny Micucci and Hal Bodley, at 11 a.m. We'll join the swearing-in ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol at 11:30.

Bodley attended his first inauguration in 1949. During his 50-year journalism career, he has made several visits to the White House, the Oval Office and Air Force One while interviewing six sitting U.S. Presidents.

Here are 10 reasons why the average baseball fan will be watching:

1. The last few times we got this excited about a powerful No. 44, Hank Aaron was hitting his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth, and Reggie Jackson was going deep three times in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series. As a baseball fan, you are most likely in the majority of people who want to see this U.S. president sworn into office.

2. It is the 56th Inauguration. We hear the number 56 and we go crazy, folks. That is the number of consecutive games in which Joe DiMaggio stroked at least one hit. And as we were reminded when MLB Network launched on New Year's night, '56 was the year when Don Larsen threw the only World Series perfect game.

3. Obama is a White Sox fan, and that means he is a baseball fan. That's good enough for all of us, whether you like the White Sox or one of the other 29 clubs. Do not be surprised to see him throwing out a ceremonial first pitch at the White Sox home opener and perhaps also the Nationals' home opener in his new backyard.

4. Inauguration Day reminds us of Opening Day. It is a day filled with parades, speeches, pomp and circumstance, new beginnings, hope, patriotic bunting, tradition and enormous crowds that now even reach for the first time to MLB.com. It is a sign of transition and rebirth that reminds us of an important normalcy in life.

Complete Inauguration coverage • Obama sworn in as 44th president • Sox official gets close view of First Fan • Obama inauguration breaking barriers • Bodley: Sixty years of experiences • On historic day, we recollect and rejoice • South Siders ready to hail the Chief • Bauman: Obama, Robinson connected • Nats owner heading home for history • Baker visits D.C. to witness history • Anderson ready to witness history • Astros' Hawkins to attend inauguration • Marlins excited about inauguration • White Sox have friend in First Fan • Sox: Firsthand fondness for Obama • Barack Obama: First Fan • MLB.com commemorates Inaugural • Barack Obama's inauguration • Negro Leaguer reacts to Obama • Grading presidential pitches • Presidents and America's pastime • Ken Williams on Obama presidency • Presidential first pitches • White Sox/Obama photo gallery

5. Abe Lincoln was a die-hard baseball player. That 16th U.S. president also is a key figure throughout this Obama ceremony. Lincoln wrote the words "a new birth of freedom" within his 1863 Gettysburg Address, and those words are the theme of this Inauguration. Obama will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, as well as the fact that Lincoln also was an Illinois politician before his presidency, and the Bible to be used in the swearing-in ceremony will be the one used for Lincoln.

6. Circuit City is going into liquidation, job losses continue unabated, retailers are smarting from an abysmal holiday season, the stock market is in tatters and you know the rest. The Red Sox froze all ticket prices for the first time in 14 years, and MLB clubs far and wide have created value-added ticket packages to help wearied masses. Expectations are high that Obama will be a difference-maker for the worst U.S. economy most baseball fans ever have known.

7. It starts the famous "first 100 days." When we think about what could happen in the first 100 days, we wonder which of the 16 nations will win the second World Baseball Classic, how it will feel again to see pitchers and catchers report to camp, what coup we will pull in our Fantasy draft, how our teams will look on Opening Day and which players will come out of the gates fast in April. Those first 100 days end on April 29, and on that night, we'll know if Manny Ramirez is still in a Dodgers uniform playing against the rival Giants and whether he is still on fire.

8. Because in 1930, Babe Ruth was informed that the $80,000 salary he received was $5,000 more that that of President Hoover. "I had a better year than he did," was Ruth's famous explanation. We know how much Alex Rodriguez commands as baseball's highest-paid player, but Obama has shown he can raise dough like no other First Fan. Right now at least, he has the kind of marquee power that the Bambino had then.

9. Breaking color barriers is something Obama and baseball definitely have in common. Watch the MLB.com live stream and you will see him officially become the first African-American U.S. president. There was not even a thought of an MLB.com live stream back in 1947, but had there been, you could also have watched as Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play Major League Baseball.

10. It is big, and these are the big leagues.

Maybe you were one of the masses who watched the Obama-John McCain final campaign debate streamed live on MLB.com during the last postseason. Obama won the election, and now at last it is time for him to go from president-elect to president. It is an online party, and you can see it right here and talk about it with other fans and fellow citizens.