Ron DeSantis Tells Clay Travis About Potential MLB Career, Criticizes Rob Manfred For All-Star Mistake

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis joined OutKick's Clay Travis on Wednesday in a lengthy, far-ranging interview.

DeSantis is famously a huge baseball fan, having played while at Yale. Travis asked him about it, specifically whether or not he would have pursued a professional baseball career had he not gone into politics.

"If you had had an opportunity to play minor league baseball, you went on to graduate from Yale, went to Harvard for law school, you've obviously been very successful, you're running for president of the United States, kind of a big thing, would you have ever gotten into politics?" Travis asked.

"So this is the truth," DeSantis answered. "I would have played baseball as long as I could. Division I college players, like 99%, if you look at all the little league kids who start out, you're in the top 1%. But to get to the big leagues, that's like the top .1, or whatever. And there's just a big difference there. So I was realistic about that, but my plan on doing law school was to try to do baseball on the business side and the front office or something like that."

DeSantis continued, explaining why his plans and career path changed. "But then 9/11 happened," he said. "And so then I ended up joining the Navy and I felt a calling to serve, I wanted to volunteer so I served in Iraq, I served all these places, and then that just kinda took me in a different path. But had that not happened, I think I would have gone into baseball and been involved on that side of the house."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to Iowa voters gathered at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on March 10, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

DeSantis Goes After MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred For Moving All-Star Game

Beyond his personal aspirations of playing or working in professional baseball, DeSantis covered the performance of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.

Specifically, Manfred's controversial 2021 decision to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta after pressure from progressive activists and Joe Biden. After previously defending his indefensible decision, Manfred's now revealed that Atlanta may be the choice to host an upcoming All-Star weekend.

READ: ROB MANFRED CONFIRMS ATLANTA COULD HOST UPCOMING ALL-STAR GAME AFTER MLB’S MISTAKE

"The All-Star Game got pulled out of Atlanta," Travis said. "I bet you had pretty strong feelings, Hank Aaron was going to be honored, they decided to move it out to Denver. Now there's talk that Rob Manfred's going to bring the All-Star Game back to Atlanta. Because now they've acknowledged, remember they pulled it because Joe Biden came out and said 'this isn't Jim Crow, this is Jim Eagle,' and now there's a recognition, 'oh by the way more people voted in the 2022 midterms in Georgia almost ever before, the data reflects that that was all a lie.'"

"Do you think Rob Manfred should apologize to Braves fans and say 'hey we got this wrong?'"

DeSantis responded, "Yeah, I mean, exactly. What is wrong with just admitting that?" He continued, "What Major League Baseball did, they responded to a fake narrative. The Democrats lie, the corporate press amplifies the lie, there becomes a frenzy, and then people just genuflect to that. And that's not responsible, you have to look to see whether this is truthful or not."

"And that's why a lot of those companies, Coca-Cola or whatever, a lot of people were not happy with them. Because look, if they really did do Jim Crow two, as a corporation speak out against it, that's fine, but that was a lie. This was very common sense stuff, it was not targeted at anybody, and as you say, the elections that have happened since then, there was massive turnout."

MLB Fell Prey To Partisan Misinformation

Travis also pointed out that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp told Manfred he was being misled by Biden.

And Manfred made the decision to move the game anyway.

DeSantis rightfully called out the exact process that led to MLB's mistake and many others. Democrats misrepresent the truth, the press repeats it, and corporations cave. Instead of reading the bill and judging for themselves, MLB outsourced their thinking to the left.

Even as many warned they were making a mistake, Manfred ignored them out of fear of progressive backlash.

One of DeSantis' major accomplishments is taking on corporations and winning. Something other Republicans have shied away from. Had he been president, there's no doubt the league would have played the game as scheduled, avoiding embarrassment and a costly mistake.

Thankfully, given his clarity on important issues, success as Florida governor, and potential opportunity to lead the country, DeSantis was pragmatic about his chances of playing professional baseball.