WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, an avid sports fan who owns golf courses and once owned a franchise in the United States Football League, stays away from most sporting events.

Now we know why.

When his name was announced to the sellout crowd after the third inning of World Series Game 5 in the midst of the Washington Nationals’ regular salute to veterans, Trump was met by a torrent of boos. The noise was intense and long-lasting, a wave of negativity that washed up to the Major League Baseball suite where the president was watching the final game of the Series to be held at Nationals Park.

But the moment the big screen in center field switched from showing Trump to once again showing the veterans, the boos from the crowd immediately returned to cheers.

This was a crowd that knew exactly what it was doing. And it knew it even before the game began.

Spectators telegraphed how they would greet Trump when they welcomed renowned chef and vocal Trump critic Jose Andres, who threw out the game’s honorary first pitch, with a particularly raucous standing ovation.

I bumped into Andres in the press elevator an hour and a half after his pitch and asked him if he interpreted the crowd’s reaction as a statement supporting his activism against Trump.

He said he would prefer not to comment, except to say this: “I’m an immigrant. Today we celebrate immigrants on a field full of immigrants.”

Trump’s visit made many people uncomfortable. He did not sit with the principal owners of the Nationals, the Lerner family, in their suite. Word was the Lerners didn’t want to have anything to do with him during his visit, a source who asked not to be named but was familiar with the situation told USA TODAY Sports.

The president arrived after the start of Sunday night’s game because he didn’t want to become a disruption for the thousands of fans streaming to Nats Park. But he was disruptive nonetheless. He caused extra long security lines for fans entering the stadium, as any president does, and a portion of the main concourse was closed for several minutes for his entrance and exit from the game.

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In addition to the robust booing thousands directed at Trump, fans exercised their right to freedom of speech in another way.

As the fourth inning began, hundreds lustily chanted “Lock him up” at Trump, mimicking the omnipresent chants Trump supporters directed at Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“Lock him up” broke out in the outfield seats and in the upper deck. It lingered for several minutes before fans returned their focus to the action on the field.

Trump hasn’t attended a major league baseball game since he took office in January 2017.

Odds are, he won’t come back any time soon.