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Donald Trump wanted to buy the San Francisco Giants at one point, apparently

Anybody who’s followed the life and times of the 45th President of these United States knows he’s a sporting fellow. Donald Trump once owned a USFL team. He tried (and failed) to start his own baseball league. And we’d be shocked if he wasn’t in at least one meeting when his pal Vince McMahon was creating the XFL.

It’s been brought to light now, however, that Trump once talked to former San Francisco Giants owner Bob Lurie about buying the franchise. We’re talking about a team that won three World Series in five years, how much winning could they have possibly done?

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We don’t know the exact timeline here, but Lurie owned the Giants from 1977 to 1993 and Trump owned the New Jersey Generals from 1983-1985, so judging by this snippet from Giants scribe Andrew Baggarly, we can narrow it down to the early ’80s, perhaps the late ’70s if it really was “a long time ago.”

Donald Trump throwing out the first pitch at an MLB game in 2006. (Reuters)
Donald Trump throwing out the first pitch at an MLB game in 2006. (Reuters)

Trying to imagine Trump owning an MLB team — especially one of the more successful teams in recent memory — is like that part of “Back to the Future 2” where Biff is a casino mogul in an alternate timeline. He’d have just fired Barry Bonds somewhere along the line, right?

Trump, the hypothetical MLB owner, might have some problems though. His opinion that immigrants who speak English should get priority entry into the U.S. would severely hurt his chances of fielding the best baseball team.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!