In a 2004 home opener, the San Francisco Giants invitedGavin Newsom,then the city’s newly minted mayor, to throw out the first pitch, though it grounded and hit a photographer.
As he took the mound, the announcer stated that Newsom had “played first base for the University of Santa Clara and was drafted by the Texas Rangers.”
Newsom was never drafted by any professional team – and saying he played on the Santa Clara baseball team in college is also a stretch, considering he never participated in an official game at the junior varsity or varsity level and was only on the team at the very most for a few months.
But thathasn’t stopped Newsomfor repeatedly waxing nostalgic about his“baseball career.”
For more than a decade, Newsom has repeatedly credited “baseball” for getting him into college and making him who he is today.
“I don’t just like sports—I love sports. It’s the reason we’re having this conversation. It’s the reason I’m governor of California,” Newsomtold The Lead podcast in 2019.
On the liberal podcastPod Save America, he once again said there was no way he could have gained admission to Santa Clara University if it weren’t for a call from the college’s baseball coaches.
“It was literally the ticket to a four-year university,” he said. “It changed my life, my trajectory.”
Yet, despite repeated mentions in theNew Yorkerand other publications that Newsom was drafted by the Texas Rangers, Newsom never corrected the record until journalists tried to clear it up when he began prepping for a presidential run in 2024.
Newsom had plenty of opportunities to set the record straight in his often-preening memoir, Boy in a Hurry, which he will officially launch Tuesday. Instead, he once again leaves out several glaring and contradictory facts about his nearly nonexistent college baseball career.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
