As the 2024 Election draws near, we now republish some of our more scathing posts on Donald J. Trump. And thus, we now revisit this piece from April 2023, covering the laughably awful Trump baseball career.
Remember when former President Donald J. Trump claimed that he could have been a professional baseball player (in a 2010 interview with MTV)? And/or the time he said that he was the best high school baseball player in the state of New York (in a 2013 tweet)?
His high school baseball coach at New York Military Academy, Ted Dobias, told the Daily Mail in 2015 that scouts from both the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Red Sox were interested in Trump.
If you doubt the veracity of those statements, you’re not alone. And you should be skeptical, because everything you just read above is “FAKE NEWS!” as the main subject of this post would say.
As it’s the 4th most populous state, New York has 20 million people, so of course there were plenty of prep school baseball players better than Trump.
Turns out, there were plenty of superior baseball players on his own team.
In the new book POWER PLAYERS: Sports, Politics, and the American Presidency, which comes out next week and is by former CNN Politics reporter Chris Cillizza, we learn that Trump was as good at hitting a baseball as he is at winning the popular vote.
Cillizza cites a Slate report from May 2020 which did a deep dive into his baseball career. Leander Schaerlaeckens writes:
Combined, the nine box scores I unearthed give Trump a 4 for 29 batting record in his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons, with three runs batted in and a single run scored. Trump’s batting average in those nine games: an underwhelming .138. (I found one additional mention of a hit and another of a hitless game in games that didn’t have box scores.)
Nine games may seem like a small sample size, but NYMA played only a dozen or so games per baseball season, suggesting that Trump’s entire high school career spanned between 30 and 40 games.
If Trump saw his own batting average in print here, he might channel his infamous tweet on Election Night 2020: “STOP THE COUNT!”
Turns out this is yet another example of Trump being completely out of touch with reality. His BA wasn’t even anywhere near the Mendoza Line. Although to be fair, he apparently got above that demarcation point his junior year. Yes, these stats were taken from a very small sample size, and perhaps his overall body of work might have been slightly better, statistically. That said, the records show that he was far from the best player on his own team, and this was not a powerhouse program, by any means.
It’s also worth noting that NYMA didn’t play anybody worthwhile. They were not in a power conference playing against top talent. Even more basic than that, if Trump had been a star, like he claimed, then some news outlet, somewhere, would have picked up on it. As Slate found, there is not one single story, in any newspaper anywhere, detailing Trump as a high school baseball star.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that no MLB scouts would travel to a school like NYMA, unless there truly was a no doubt blue chip prospect present. So that story was a lie too.
The Trump self-perception, all across the board, redefines the term delusions of grandeur. It’s how he is with every single thing in his life, as the Trump chapter in Power Players does a fantastic job of detailing that. Trump has always been this way, and he always will be. He’s never truly faced any consequences for his actions, at any point in his life (we’ll see, in regards to the NY state indictment, but don’t hold your breath) so he’s been free to spin reality into whatever he wants it to be.
The idea, which exists pretty much only in his head that was a bona fide MLB prospect is basically just the sports version of that infamous New York Post back cover.
You know the one that claimed Marla Maples called Trump “the best sex I’ve ever had.” This is like a baseball version of that. And for the record Maples denies every saying that, and all signs point to Trump paying to have that story planted.
As for stories of events that actually happened, “Power Players” provides precisely that. It tells the tales of Presidents and the sports they played, loved and spectated. It also discusses the sports they became involved with on a business level, which helps us all better understand what it takes to be elected to lead a country driven by sports fans of all stripes.
Take a look at this passage here, when Obama was involved in a pick-up game with NBA stars.
When @BarackObama talked smack to @JoakimNoah and it backfired, badly: according to @davidaxelrod, in @ChrisCillizza ‘s new book. HAHA@CP3 commentary is priceless too! LOL
Book Review coming soon @ https://t.co/RDkCWPlMsJ#NBA #NBAPlayoffs #NBATwitterLive #BullsNation pic.twitter.com/HmicWQi8Nl— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) April 11, 2023
The fact that no one was guarding Obama, until Kobe Bryant said something and Chris Paul did something, about it is hilarious. It’s like an American version of those hockey games in Russia where Vladimir Putin scores 12 goals in one game and his side always wins 24-3, or something like that. That is until Obama called the jump shot of Chicago Bulls legend Joakim Noah “ugly” (it truly is), so the former NBA Defensive Player of the Year then took it upon himself to shut Obama down completely.
Power Players is an engaging and compelling read that is packed with funny and interesting anecdotes like that.
I completely concur with the Jake Tapper quote on the cover- this is a book that will be enjoyed by sports fans and politicos alike. And if you’re in the Venn diagram of both (like this writer), then you’ll like it.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.