Perspective on Trump

"Mr. Trump, who rarely exposes himself to hostile crowds, stood, smiled gamely and clapped as the fans booed loudly."

"Some in the section below him turned to him, shouting and jabbing fingers. The president, who faces impeachment by the House over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to provide incriminating information about Democrats, then found himself on the receiving end of a chant that might have sounded familiar. 'Lock him up!' the crowd chanted, a turnabout from the 'lock her up' his supporters would chant about Hillary Clinton in 2016. Mr. Trump offered no noticeable reaction and took his seat as the game resumed before slipping out in the eighth inning."

From "For Trump, No Joy in Mudville/In his first appearance at a Major League Baseball game since taking office, the president was booed at Game 5 of the World Series at Washington’s Nationals Park" (NYT).

Why did the President go to the game? He had to know he'd be met with this kind of negativity. 

One answer is, the man loves baseball. Here are "6 Things You Didn't Know About Donald Trump's Baseball Career": "6. He Was Scouted by the Phillies and Red Sox... 5. He Could 'Throw 80 MPH'... 4. He Smashed His Friends' Bats and Wouldn't Apologize... 3. He Hit Into the Shift to Overpower People... 2. His Dad Wouldn't Buy Him the Latest Glove... 1. Claims He Was 'The Best Baseball Player in New York.'"

Another answer is that he's unconventional, as #3 shows. He was hitting into the shift. Maybe he's doing that with the impeachment too — hitting into the Schiff. From the "6 Things" article:

Even at a young age, Donald liked to use his power to "overpower" people. Donald reportedly had so much pop as a right-handed hitter that the infielders would put the shift on him. Naturally, what did he do? He purposely tried to hit into the shift to "overpower" the defense physically. 

Do you understand baseball enough to absorb and analyze that metaphor? Here are "9 things you need to know about the shift/Baseball's biggest defensive trend may not be what you think." Is this the blog post from hell — leading from one list to a longer list, ad infinitum? No. I am genuinely trying to understand what personality trait is expressed by a decision to hit into the shift. Presumably, the infield defensive players reposition themselves because of the likelihood that the batter will hit to the place where they are moving to. So the batter could try to hit elsewhere, if he can.

If Trump "purposely tried to hit into the shift," that has to mean that he had the capacity to do something other than what defensive players were counting on, but he chose not to. Now, did he do that because he thought he was so much stronger in that direction that it was more likely to work than trying to hit the ball to the poorly defended part of the infield or was it about showing off and humiliating the opponents (which is what the "9 things" article seems to be saying)?

The most relevant thing in the "9 things" article for our purposes here is #7, which is that the shift increases home runs. As one ballplayer said "You don't beat the shift by hitting around it or through it, you beat the shift by hitting over it." That is, what Trump isn't evidence of negative character traits special to him but what any ballplayer could or should figure out is the best offensive tactic. Or was Trump hitting through the shift? Maybe that is the hardest and least advisable approach for the average player. But maybe it's the best bet for some players, and Trump was one of those players.

All right. There's your baseball analogy for Trump. Think about it in other contexts. His antagonists have put the shift on, and they think that might get him to try to hit around it, but he's hitting over it. Going to the baseball game even though he knew he'd face a shift — there would be booing and not the usual honoring of a President — was the choice to hit over the shift. To avoid the games altogether would have been to try to hit around the shift. To avoid all the World Series games when they are in Washington, D.C. would have been a display of weakness.

In baseball, if you can tell if the tactic of hitting over the shift works. There will be a hit. In political life, it's more ambiguous, and it may depend on the observer's angle: