Governor Gavin Newsom, California’s charismatic leader known for his polished public persona and stirring political ambitions, has found himself at the center of a new controversy.
This time, it’s not about policy or politics but about baseball, a sport Newsom has often mentioned as a pivotal part of his backstory. Newsom’s public biographies glow with anecdotes of his baseball prowess, claiming he played first base for Santa Clara University and was even drafted by the Texas Rangers.
However, a closer examination by CalMatters, a non-profit news organization, revealed these claims might be more fiction than fact, leaving the governor’s credibility on shaky ground.
The tale of Newsom’s baseball career took center stage in 2004 when, as the newly minted mayor of San Francisco, he threw the first pitch at the San Francisco Giants’ home opener.
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The event announcer introduced him with accolades of his supposed baseball history at Santa Clara University and his drafting by the Texas Rangers, a story that raised eyebrows among those familiar with Santa Clara’s baseball records.
Newsom’s narrative has always been one of triumph over adversity—the dyslexic kid who overcame academic challenges through sports, securing a place at Santa Clara University through baseball and reshaping his future.
The story has been repeated in various forms, from interviews and magazine profiles to a children’s book on overcoming dyslexia, blending personal struggle with athletic achievement.
However, former coaches and teammates reveal a different story, one where Newsom’s involvement in baseball at Santa Clara was minimal, never extending beyond junior varsity tryouts, with no record of him playing in an official game for the university.
The discrepancies in Newsom’s baseball tale extend beyond just team rosters. A deeper dive into his recruitment to Santa Clara revealed a web of connections and recommendations from influential friends of his father, a prominent judge and financial advisor.
These connections, rather than athletic talent, appear to have played a significant role in Newsom’s admission to the university and his brief stint in its baseball program.
CalMatters reported:
But former coaches and teammates said that biography, repeated again and again through interviews and glossy magazine profiles and coverage of his 2021 baseball-themed children’s book on overcoming dyslexia, has inflated Newsom’s baseball credentials, giving the impression that he was a more accomplished player than he was.
Most notably, Newsom never played an official game for Santa Clara University; he was a junior varsity recruit who played only during the fall tryouts his freshman and sophomore years, then left the baseball program before the regular season began. He does not appear on the Broncos’ all-time roster or in media guides published by the athletic department to preview the upcoming season.
A deeper look at his recruitment also reveals that Newsom’s admission to Santa Clara University — like so many of his formative opportunities — was substantially boosted by friends and acquaintances of his father, William Newsom, a San Francisco judge and financial adviser to the Gettys, the wealthy oil family. One associate connected Newsom to the baseball program when he was in high school, while his father’s best friend, then a member of the university’s board of regents, wrote him a letter of recommendation.
“I played a little baseball. Just my first and second year,” Newsom told The Santa Clara back in a 2008.
Kevin Schneider, a former pitcher with two seasons under his belt who now operates a pitching academy in San Francisco, expressed his disapproval emphatically. “He didn’t earn it. He didn’t earn the right to say it,” Schneider stated.
“I worked my ass off. So did everyone else on that team. For him to just go all these years, to say he did something he didn’t that takes not just talent but also dedication and effort and sacrifice, it’s not right.”
The governor’s office has rebuffed inquiries into these discrepancies, insisting Newsom has never overstated his baseball experience. Yet, the narrative persists, propelled by selective memory and strategic omissions more than by outright fabrication.
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