EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt knows baseball. The college-level player who tried out twice for the Cincinnati Reds eventually went on to own the Oklahoma City AAA farm team for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Naturally, he likes to use baseball lingo when addressing bigger issues, like his controversial stewardship of the agency.
Under Pruitt, who has been battling questions about his travel and initial rental of a room from a lobbyist-friend, the EPA has surpassed President Trump’s demands to take environmental policy back from Obama-era liberals. “I think we’re batting at a Ted Williams level at least with respect to getting things done,” he said in an interview.
In recent weeks as the criticism of Pruitt has mounted, Trump has been supportive because his EPA chief has announced weekly, sometimes daily, rollbacks of regulations that Republicans felt went too far too fast under Obama.
According to the EPA’s newly issued report card, “In one year, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt spearheaded 22 deregulatory actions that could save the American people more than $1 billion in regulatory costs.”
Helping him keep focused through controversy is his philosophy on baseball. “You fail most of the time in baseball. Three times out 10 if you get a hit you make a lot of money at the big league level, but you’re still failing seven out of 10,” he said.
“One of the things in life that I think baseball teaches is just perseverance, you know dealing with difficulty and failure and getting back up and going forward. This phrase of failing forward is something that I think is very important and baseball is very reflective of that,” he added.
As an owner of the Oklahoma City Dodgers farm team, Pruitt was an innovator who sought to bring the big league experience to his park.
One idea that some in the front office frowned on initially but scored big with fans was the “dog pound,” where foods from other major league parks were imported, like the Fenway Dog, Milwaukee’s bratwurst, and the Chicago Dog.
“Baseball is a sport where you associate certain food items with the sport. You don’t see that so much in basketball and football. But in baseball you have iconic food items,” said Pruitt. “Most people haven’t tasted an authentic Fenway Frank.”
Pruitt, who attended some games last year and looks forward to going to the park this year, said that he has shared baseball tales with Trump.
“We did talk baseball a little bit. The president shared that he’s fond of it,” said Pruitt. “We haven’t gone to a game. I’d love to talk baseball with him at a game,” he added.
