Fact Check: Was Donald Trump recruited by Phillies and Red Sox? Viral baseball claim about former US President, examined

Love him or hate him, everything Donald Trump says should be taken with a grain of salt. Many critics of the former President of the United States claim that nearly everything that Trump says is either a lie or embellishment, which leads us to something that was brought up in the past.

According to the former President, he was a star baseball player in high school, going as far as to say that he could have made a living as a professional baseball player. “I was supposed to be a pro baseball player,” Donald Trump wrote in 2004. “At the New York Military Academy, I was captain of the baseball team. I worked hard like everyone else, but I had good talent.”

That passage was written by Trump for a book called The Games Do Count: America’s Best and Brightest on the Power of Sports, compiled by Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade. And while he has mentioned his baseball prowess several times, the quote from this book was the earliest mention of his talent.

"I played football and baseball, sorry, but said to be the best bball player in N.Y. State-ask coach Ted Dobias-said best he ever coached." - @realDonaldTrump

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Ted Dobias expanded upon Trump's claims of his elite baseball talent. According to Dobias, Donald Trump was scouted by the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies, and repeated to Rolling Stone that the Phillies had been interested. “He was quite the athlete,” Dobias said.

There is no official record of either team being interested in the former President, outside of the claims made by Dobias and Trump himself.

A look at Donald Trump's playing career with the New York Military Academy

As we get older, sometimes our memory deceives us, which could be the case for Trump as his statistical numbers don't back up his claims. According to a report from Slate.com, Trump was dreadful with the bat in his hand. Upon analysis of box scores from games in which Donald Trump participated, his batting average would have limited his ability to make it to the MLB.

"In his sophomore year, Trump’s .100 batting average in those games was the lowest of any of the five players who had at least eight at-bats. As a junior, he did a tad better, hitting .200" - Slate.com

According to a former front office member of the Toronto Blue Jays front office, Keith Law, Trump has "no chance" of making a career in the MLB. "That’s totally unthinkable. It’s absolutely laughable. He hit .138—he couldn’t fucking hit, that’s pretty clear.”

After some online research, it appears that perhaps the business and political world are better suited for Donald Trump than the baseball diamond.