On Sunday, football goes to the national stage with the Super Bowl LV in Tampa. It is veteran Tom Brady who seeks his seventh Super Bowl victory and his first with the Buccaneers, while Patrick Mahomes, 25, tries to win consecutive rings for the Chiefs. But these two famous quarterbacks might have been playing for World Series titles if their athletic careers had taken slightly different directions.
Brady and Mahomes are former MLB draft picks and have a history of also showing their athletic greatness on the baseball field. Brady, 43, was taken in the 18th round of the 1995 MLB Draft by Montreal Expos. Mahomes, for his part, heard his name called out in the 37th round of the MLB Draft 2014 by the Detroit Tigers.
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The two athletes made the wise choice to pursue careers on the battlefield, but we wanted to celebrate this Super Bowl showdown by taking a look at what they could be like if they chose the baseball field. See how Brady and Mahomes could be like professional baseball players.
Brady
Before diving into Brady’s potential in baseball, we wanted to share something fun to emphasize Brady’s longevity in the NFL and the extreme age difference between him and his opponent quarterback. In 1995, Brady was chosen in the draft for Major League Baseball; Montreal Expos selected Brady as the 507th choice in the 18th round. It was in the same year that Mahomes was born. The 18-year age gap between Brady, 43, and Mahomes, 25, will be the biggest age difference between two full-backs in Super Bowl history. Okay, now, back to Brady’s baseball career.
In high school, Brady played two years in varsity baseball and finished with a batting average of 0.311, with eight home runs, 11 doubles and 44 RBI as a left-handed batter. Even in 2003 as a 26-year-old young defender from the New England Patriots, Brady was still able to show some pop at Fenway Park:
According to Sports Illustrated, Brady exhibited the same leadership that fans now see in the NFL when he was just a teenage baseball player. More:
Behind the plate, Brady was so skilled. He talked to the referees before the games in the same way that he talks to the referees now, presumably hoping that a friendly conversation could influence closed decisions later in the game. [Brady’s high school baseball coach] Pete Jensen let his Seekers call their own games – a luxury that many college coaches don’t pay their players – and Brady accepted the challenge. He met with the pitchers before the games and discussed the strategy: how they would prepare the hitters and attack their weaknesses. Brady had played against many of these league hitters while growing up and aware of their trends. “He had a book in mind about these guys,” said Jon Chapman, Serra’s ace pitcher that year. “If I tried to get rid of him, he would throw the same damn sign on the floor. It was like, ok, let’s go. Tommy knows what he’s doing.”
Former Expos scout John Hughes covered high schools in Northern California and when he noticed Brady at Junipero Serra High School (also where Gregg Jefferies and Barry Bonds played) in San Mateo, California, he knew immediately that Brady would be a special athlete, he said. him to the NY Daily News.
For Hughes, Brady will always be “the one who got away” from baseball. In his scouting reports to Brady, Hughes considered the school’s retreat to have a “good athletic body” and the power to pull aside with good instincts for the game. Here’s more of Hughes via NYDN:
He was drafted in the 18th round because everyone knew how difficult it would be to sign him. He was very talented. I mean, just based on talent, he would have a final choice in the second round. And I believe that he would have made it, as a catcher, he would have gotten there.
His personal makeup was what made him stand out. When (Expos) came to play against the Giants, I took Tom and his father to the stadium. We put him in a uniform and made him practice hitting, took him to the club and let him meet some of the guys. I looked a few minutes later and he is sitting in front of a closet with guys around him talking to them.
Ultimately, Brady chose to study at the University of Michigan, where he had a football scholarship, forgoing the often arduous journey through the minor league system to the major leagues. In another universe, Brady could have caught Mahomes in the MLB. Wild, right?
Mahomes
Now, for Mahomes, baseball is in the family. Patrick Mahomes’ father, Pat Mahomes, played 11 seasons as a pitcher in the major leagues, playing for the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates and Minnesota Twins during his 1992-2003 career. The youngest Mahomes grew up near MLB Players and in professional baseball clubs, played in high school and made a brief and final appearance with the Texas Tech baseball team before ending the game.
“Patrick was always there, he wanted it,” Mahomes Sr. told NFL Network. “He wanted to get there early, go down and hit the A-Rod, he wanted to go out and fuck the team, do batting training with the team and then go to the nursery.”
During his first year at Texas Tech, Mahomes’ only high school pitcher came during the 2015 season, and it didn’t go very well. He failed to remove all three hitters he faced, walking two and giving up on three races won. Mahomes felt as if he had won his last season of baseball in baseball.
“So I think I have an infinite ERA, which is probably not a good one. But, yes, this is not something I am very proud to have on my resume,” Mahomes told reporters during one of this week’s Super Bowl session. media.
But even after deciding to part ways with baseball and instead focus entirely on football, Mahomes remained connected to the sport when he joined Kansas City Royals last year.
In the last year of high school at Whitehouse High School in Texas, Mahomes reached 94-95 mph with his fastball and launched a 16-hit no-hitter in his final year. He was also able to play on the field thanks to the strength of his impressive arm.
Detroit Tigers crosschecker Tim Grieve regards Mahomes as possibly the best multisport athlete he has ever seen.
“He was the best player on the field or on the court in three different sports,” Grieve told MLB.com. “It wasn’t like you were just talking about a sport, a position. I’m pretty sure he would have been good at everything he wanted to do. And you see the smile. He may have ended up as a central defender and reaching third place in his lineup. I’m not even sure if launching was the best thing he did. “
He was called up in the 37th round by the Detroit Tigers (No. 1,120 of the general selection), but he kept his commitment to Texas Tech and didn’t sign. Mahomes is an exceptional athlete and has a build similar to that of Mike Trout, weighing about 1.80 m, 230 pounds.
“Obviously you see his [Mahomes] baseball history on its delivery, “Brady told reporters on Friday.” It delivers with many arm angles. He has a lot of whip from his launch. It is a good quality to have as a defender. Playing from different angles and trying to handle the rush and so on. We all use a little of our youth to try to use it as we get older. “
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