President-elect Donald Trump has had quite a full schedule in the days and weeks leading up to his inauguration, and has met and broken bread with all the power players in and out of Washington with whom he will work with over the next eight years.
On Tuesday, the President-elect made time to meet with power brokers from the world of sports, and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and Yankees President Randy Levine made the trip to Trump Tower. A pic was captured and tweeted by C-SPAN’s Howard Mortman:
Commissioner Manfred described the meeting as simply a chance for all to get to know each other. Manfred told the Daily News, “I had a really nice meeting with the president-elect. He explained to me his history with the game and what a great baseball fan he is, and we are glad that we had an opportunity to get together before his inauguration.”
The Daily News also points out that, “Trump was good friends with the late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, and Trump and Levine have known each other for over 25 years.”
Trump has had other ties to baseball over the years as well. Trump attempted to purchase the Cleveland Indians at one point. He has also deepened his ties with the baseball world since the election, most notably by selecting Todd Ricketts, part of the Chicago Cubs ownership, as the next deputy commerce secretary.
So, this means that Trump once tried to buy last year’s American League champion, and he also hired a piece of last year’s National League and World Series champion.
Not too shabby.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn