- President Trump has often boasted about his prowess as a high school
baseball player, claiming he could have played professionally had he taken a different direction in life. - But a deep dive into his high school baseball career from Leander Schaerlaeckens at Slate showed a different story.
- While Trump is credited as a solid first baseman by several teammates, a limited look at his box scores revealed him to be a below-average hitter.
- Schaerlaeckens also noted the lack of coverage of Trump in high school makes it unlikely he was on the radar of any professional teams in his youth.
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President Trump's recollections of his career as a high school baseball player have come under scrutiny.
Trump has claimed that he was a standout player, capable of making the big leagues had he desired.
"I was captain of the baseball team," Trump said in a 2010 interview with MTV. "I was supposed to be a professional baseball player. Fortunately, I decided to go into real estate instead. I played first base and I also played catcher. I was a good hitter. I just had a good time."
In a 2013 tweet, Trump went as far as to say that he was the best player in the state of New York in his high school days.
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2013
But a deep dive into Trump's high school career from Leander Schaerlaeckens at Slate suggests that the president's claims might be a bit exaggerated.
While Trump did play for the New York Military Academy through his high school days, the evidence seems to show him as a solid first baseman who struggled at the plate, rather than future pro.
Schaerlaeckens points to one anecdote that draws quite a bit of scrutiny. In a passage he wrote for the book "The Games Do Count: America's Best and Brightest on the Power of
"I will never forget […] the first time I saw my name in the newspaper," Trump wrote. "It was when I got the winning home run in a game between our academy and Cornwall High School. It was in 1964 and it was in a little local paper. It simply said, TRUMP HOMERS TO WIN THE GAME. I just loved it and I will never forget it. It was better than actually hitting the home run."
But Schaerlaeckens couldn't find any evidence of such a headline in local papers that were covering the NYMA's baseball team at the time. Further, he found that the NYMA didn't even play against Cornwall High School that year or the year before.
While Schaerlaeckens could only find a limited offering of box scores from Trump's time at NYMA, they painted a picture of the future president as a solid fielder but a questionable hitter — in nine games, Trump went 4-29 at the plate for a batting average of .138.
It's possible that Schaerlaeckens simply caught a glimpse of Trump's worst games as a hitter — even the best batters in baseball go through the occasional slump — but there's a reason that batting average is used as a vital indicator of a ballplayer's potential.
Schaerlaeckens also pointed to the fact that the limited coverage of Trump throughout his high school career raises questions as to how real his pro prospects were. Had he had a real shot at the majors, local papers would have covered him more extensively.
Trump's own recollection of his talents might be a bit exaggerated, but he's not the only person who has talked up his abilities as an athlete in his youth. In a 2015 interview with Business Insider, former teammate Ted Levine spoke highly of Trump's baseball prowess.
"He was just the best, a good athlete, a great athlete," Levine said. "He could have probably played pro ball as a pitcher. I think he threw 80 miles an hour. I was the catcher. He made my hand black and blue every day."
Taken as a whole, it looks as though Trump was a fine player through high school who, like so many former high school athletes, happens to remember the glory days with a bit of extra flair.
You can read Schaerlaeckens' entire story here.
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