Ask A Genius 1550: Trump, Baseball, and Book Deals
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/10/18
How do Jacobsen and Rosner connect the randomness of baseball, Trump’s political chaos, and the art of personal reinvention in their wide-ranging conversation?
In this sharp and witty dialogue, Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosnerjump from the Dodgers’ playoff run and Shohei Ohtani’s brilliance to Trump’s monument ambitions, the decline of democratic institutions, and the absurdity of political theater. They dissect how randomness governs both baseball and governance, drawing parallels between sport, power, and personal resilience. Rosner critiques America’s authoritarian drift and reflects on creative life—from his daughter’s new book deal to his own search for purpose and a website mission statement. The exchange captures intellect, humor, and exhaustion in an era where spectacle often replaces reason.
Rick Rosner: I like following the Dodgers because they have been one of the winningest teams in Major League Baseball since 2010. I do not like supporting underdogs because I don’t want to be disappointed. I am a terrible fan—the worst kind of fan. However, they are doing really well in the playoffs.
They may have the best player of this generation—Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese superstar. It is characteristic of the Dodgers, and probably many other teams, that sometimes their regular-season players do not perform as well in the playoffs, and vice versa. That is not necessarily the players’ fault, because baseball is the most statistically random of the major sports. A batting average of .300—getting a hit three out of every ten at-bats—is considered excellent.
Only a small percentage of Major League players, usually under 10%, finish a season hitting .300 or better. There is a tremendous amount of randomness in the game.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Any new Trump, Biden, or Obama news? Not much with Biden or Obama, but Trump continues to do new outrageous things every day. Enablers surround him and have learned that the more shocking stuff he announces or does, the more they distract from everything else he has already done.
When a monkey only throws one piece of poo a day, it is easier for the keepers to get in there and clean the enclosure before it throws again. However, if the poo is constant—if the monkey’s throwing nonstop—it becomes much harder to stop the chaos.
That is a terrible analogy, and it is not even mine—it comes from Dreamweasel on X (formerly Twitter). However, the point stands: the chaos Trump creates is constant. Recently, he floated the idea of constructing a new monument in Washington, D.C.—something like an “American Arc de Triomphe.”
It is in terrible taste. The proposed design resembles the French Arc de Triomphe, but with gaudy gold detailing and an angel-like figure on top—entirely out of step with the neoclassical style of D.C.’s existing monuments. There was another man with grandiose and terrible architectural taste: Adolf Hitler.
When you look at some of the plans he had for Berlin under architect Albert Speer, Trump’s taste might actually be worse. At least Hitler was an artist—he applied to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (not Berlin) and produced architectural paintings that were competent, though not enough to get him admitted around 1907–1908.
Back to Trump. He reportedly wants to organize a parade or celebration for America’s 250th anniversary in 2026, possibly involving military displays. Some of his comments have included extreme and implausible suggestions, such as military flyovers or naval demonstrations, though there is no credible indication that he has proposed firing missiles into California.
I don’t know how Trump plans to mark the event. I guess the missiles are supposed to explode in midair—or do they hit targets on the ground? I don’t know, but it is lunacy. It’s just more crazy nonsense.
We won’t talk again until after King’s Day, which is two days from now, since you’re travelling. It’s supposed to be a day when people across America turn out to protest all the unilateral actions Trump is taking. The Republicans, of course, are calling it “Hate America Day,” as if protesting Trump means you hate the country. It’s cynical but probably effective messaging.
Jacobsen: What about the Supreme Court?
Rosner: Based on what was said when this was argued a few days ago before the Supreme Court, it looks like they’re going to do further damage to the Voting Rights Act and allow Southern states to gerrymander out districts with enough Black voters to elect Black representatives to Congress. If the ruling goes as expected, it could flip as many as nineteen seats to the Republicans.
That’s bad because the Republicans, now in control of government, are not just doing a poor job—they are doing an authoritarian and corrosive job. They’re enabling Trump, the worst president in U.S. history.
It used to be that every couple of years—every eighteen months or so—various universities or organizations would poll presidential historians and ask them to rank presidents from best to worst. Out of the five rankings published since Trump was first elected, he was rated the worst president of all time in two of them. The panels included historians from across the political spectrum: most liberal, but also some conservative and moderate voices. In the other three surveys, he was ranked second worst, third worst, and fourth worst.
The last such survey was conducted in February 2024. I doubt another will be done this year—or even next year—because no university wants to risk Trump’s retaliation. This is a man who could try to pull hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding from a university simply for publishing a survey calling him the worst president in history.
So, I don’t expect another presidential greatness survey until he’s out of office. Moreover, even then, I’m not sure the results would be accurate. Many historians might be too intimidated to participate—or, if they did, they might artificially rank him higher to avoid his wrath. So, there will probably be no presidential greatness survey until 2029.
By that time, if Republicans are out of power, Trump will almost certainly be ranked the worst president in American history—because he’s only gotten worse since the last survey was taken. I should probably stop talking about it, though; I don’t want to draw his ire either.
Also, my wife—who knows the ins and outs of publishing—said we should probably come up with a mission statement for my website, if you don’t mind, at some point, especially if I want to get a book deal.
My kid just got a book deal, by the way. We’ve been following her path to getting one. She’s an engaging communicator in her field, which is very visual. She’s good at that sort of thing.
Jacobsen: Plus, you want to get a book deal too, right?
Rosner: So let us come up with mission statements. You should write one for yourself, and at some point, we can discuss creating a mission statement for the top of my website—something that helps define my lane.
Jacobsen: Math, G-strings, and rollerblades.
Rosner: Yeah, that’s several different lanes. No, that’s the pitch—that’s the name of the book. It’s been pitched fairly thoroughly. I actually had a book deal for four days once—it was there, and then it was gone.
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