Tom Brady catching Patrick Mahomes? Our lineup of NFL stars drafted by MLB
The past two quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl could have been pro baseball players.
Before Tom Brady won six rings, he was chosen in the 18th round of the 1995 draft by the Montreal Expos. “He was a left-handed-hitting catcher with power. He had a good future,” the Expos’ then-director of college scouting, Ed Creech, told the Montreal Gazette in 2002.
No one knows where that path would have led, but it’s safe to say Brady made the right choice to focus on football.
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The same can be said for reigning NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes, whose dad pitched in the major leagues for 11 seasons. The Chiefs quarterback was also a gifted pitcher, tossing a no-hitter with 16 strikeouts in high school.
Several current NFL players were once drafted by Major League Baseball teams — enough to field an interesting lineup.
Before the first round of the 2020 MLB draft begins Wednesday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN), check out our star-studded baseball team made up of NFL players, featuring six quarterbacks, five former first-round NFL draft picks (including two No. 1 overall picks) and two former NFL MVPs.
Starting pitcher: Patrick Mahomes
Current job: Kansas City Chiefs quarterback
Patrick Mahomes was an MLB prospect as both a pitcher and an outfielder coming out of high school. Texas Tech Athletics
Drafted in baseball: 2014, Round 37, Detroit Tigers
MLB player comp: pitcher Edwin Jackson
Stat line: Mahomes not only could reach 93 mph as a pitcher for Whitehouse High School, but he reportedly “hit better than .450” his senior year, according to MaxPreps.
Scouting report: As a high school junior, Mahomes was still pretty raw. While he was also an outfield prospect, Mahomes was most promising as a pitcher, where he was a third-round prospect or so. — ESPN MLB Insider Kiley McDaniel
Famous baseball connection: It starts with Mahomes’ father, who pitched for six major league teams in 11 seasons. Mahomes pitched a no-hitter in high school, striking out 16. The opposing pitcher? White Sox pitcher Michael Kopech, who was traded to Chicago in the Chris Sale deal.
He said it: “I just wanted to follow it and see where it took me,” Mahomes told ESPN’s Jenna Laine on choosing football over baseball. “I still thought there was a good chance I was gonna play baseball, but I wanted to see where football took me, and I was able to go out there [and succeed].”
The pitcher threw him a hot dog.
And you know @PatrickMahomes brought ketchup. #BigSlickKC pic.twitter.com/LBYIIkQamk
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) June 7, 2019 Catcher: Tom Brady
Current job: Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback
Drafted in baseball: 1995, Round 18, Montreal Expos
MLB player comp: Retired catcher Brian McCann or Brewers catcher Omar Narvaez
Why was he drafted: Brady “was drafted in the 18th round because everyone knew how difficult it would be to sign him,” John Hughes, then a scout with the Expos, told the New York Daily News in 2019. “He was very talented. I mean on talent alone he would have been projected a late second-round pick. And I believe he would have made it [to the majors]; as a catcher, he would have gotten there.”
Tom Brady said he was a better baseball player in high school than a football player. Serra High School, San Mateo
Scouting report: Brady “could really catch and throw,” former Junipero Serra High School baseball coach Pete Jensen told the Star-Ledger in 2012. “I was a part-time scout with the Mariners. So, prior to the June draft, I took Tommy to a pre-draft workout at the Kingdome with a bunch of other prospects. He put on a show. He hit two or three balls out in batting practice with a wood bat and was probably the best-throwing guy there.”
Added former Expos GM Kevin Malone, via Bleacher Report’s Bill Sparos: “He could have been one of the greatest catchers ever. I know that’s quite a statement, but the projections were based on the fact we had a left-hand-hitting catcher, with arm strength and who was athletic.”
Famous baseball connection: Brady went to the same high school as outfielders Barry Bonds and Gregg Jefferies.
He said it: “I just loved football more,” Brady said to Howard Stern in a 2020 interview when asked why he didn’t pursue pro baseball. “I was a pretty good baseball player. I was probably a better baseball player in high school than a football player, and then I think I was just in love with football. When I became quarterback, I wanted to become more of a football player and I … even though I got offered to play baseball. I thought in the end I’d rather go to college and play football than go play professional baseball. It was a pretty easy decision.”
Full coverage of the 2020 MLB draft is available here
Watch the 2020 MLB draft on ESPN & the ESPN App
Wed., June 10: Round 1 starting at 7 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Thu., June 11: Rounds 2-5 starting at 5 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
Kiley McDaniel’s latest mock draft
Team-by-team draft guide: Fits, needs for all 30 teams
Ranking the top 150 MLB draft prospects
Current job: Seattle Seahawks quarterback
Drafted: 2007, Round 41, Baltimore Orioles; 2010, Round 4, Colorado Rockies; 2013, Rule 5 draft, Texas Rangers
MLB player comp: Rockies second baseman Garrett Hampson
Stat line: Wilson played a combined 93 games for the Single-A Tri-City Devils and Asheville Tourists in 2010-11, hitting a combined .229, with five home runs and 26 RBIs. He stole 19 bases, but he also struck out 118 times in 315 at-bats.
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was drafted not once, not twice, but three times by MLB teams. AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
Scouting report: Has the athleticism and aptitude that gave scouts reason to believe he could be a quality infielder. — Baseball America
He said it: “While football is my passion and my livelihood, baseball remains a huge part of where I came from and who I am today,” Wilson said in 2018 after being acquired by the New York Yankees. “I’ve learned so much on the baseball field that translates to my game physically and mentally playing quarterback in the NFL.”
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Maria Taylor takes Kyler Murray back to the diamond to talk about how playing baseball led him to football.
Current job: Arizona Cardinals quarterback
Drafted: 2018, Round 1 (No. 9 overall), Oakland A’s
MLB player comp: Diamondbacks outfielder Starling Marte
Stat line: A shortstop in high school, Murray played 51 games in the outfield for the Oklahoma Sooners in 2018 — his last season. He had a slash line of .298/.396/.954, with 10 home runs and 47 RBIs.
Scouting report: The A’s took an optimistic viewpoint on his talent, essentially assuming he’d continue improving with more reps at the same rate that he’d improved throughout the year. He’s an easy plus runner, strong center fielder and was electric at the plate with above-average raw power, but a little too aggressive with poor pitch selection. If he hit his upside, he’d be a .260-ish hitter with 25 homers who played as an above-average center fielder — in the Victor Robles or Starling Marte area. Ironically, the weakest point of his game aside from pitch selection was throwing. I watched him for a weekend, and the scouts’ most-discussed topic was about watching him throw and concluding that his football-type throwing motion was holding him back. — McDaniel
Kyler Murray is the first player ever to be selected in the first round of both the NFL and MLB drafts. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Famous baseball connection: Teammates on the 2018 Oklahoma team included projected 2020 first-round pick RHP Cade Cavalli and 2018 Rangers second-round pick OF Steele Walker.
He said it: “It helps a lot,” Murray said of his baseball skills on the football field, according to a report by ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss. “I’ve seen a lot of terrible slides in my day. It’s a lot smoother than other people, you know, the pop-up slide, stuff like that, just being able to get down whenever I want. Yeah, I think it helps.”
Murray got some advice on choosing between baseball and football from Wilson: “I told him do what he really kind of dreamed about doing ever since he was little. … Try everything you can to keep your options open in that sense,” Wilson told ESPN’s Brady Henderson. “I think that to be able to have the gift of playing pro football and pro baseball is a special gift. There’s only so many people in the world who get to do that and have the opportunity to do that at a high level, too. I think that, more than anything else, is look at it as a blessing, not a curse. Sometimes you can get worried about what may happen or this or that and am I making the right decision. Just go for it. At the end of the day, something great is going to happen.”
Current job: Carolina Panthers linebacker
Drafted: 2012, Round 18, Boston Red Sox
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MLB player comp: Brewers outfielder Keon Broxton
Stat line: In 13 games with the Gulf Coast Red Sox in 2012, Thompson had 37 strikeouts in 39 at-bats.
Scouting report: The prototypical raw athlete with impressive tools and very few baseball skills. His summer in the rookie-level GCL is the classic example of what can happen if you lean too far toward tools and upside and ignore baseball skills. He’s a big center field-type athlete with power, but not much else. — McDaniel
Famous baseball connections: Fourteen teammates on the GCL Red Sox have played in the majors — a few were veterans on rehab, such as Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury.
Quote: “I just learned how to be a professional,” Thompson told NFL.com in 2016 of his time with the Red Sox. “Learned how to carry myself and it really taught me how to be on my own. I was on my own at 18, and I didn’t have my mom or nobody down there. It was learning how to grow up.”
Current job: Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver
Drafted: 2007, Round 47, Arizona Diamondbacks; 2010, Round 50, San Francisco Giants
MLB player comp: Cleveland Indians outfielder Delino DeShields Jr.
Golden Tate was drafted twice as an outfielder — by Arizona in 2007 and by San Francisco in 2010. Ted S. Warren/AP Photo
Stat line: In 264 at-bats for Notre Dame over two seasons in 2008-09, Tate hit .318 with 25 RBIs and 16 stolen bases.
Scouting report: Tate displayed good speed but showed little in-game power at Notre Dame. Tate said he struggled hitting curveballs, but his speed was “what got [him] around.” — McDaniel
He said it: “I quickly realized that I can affect a football field more than a baseball diamond,” Tate said in an interview at the fourth annual Tennessean sports awards via USA Today. “On the baseball field, I could maybe make a diving catch or maybe hit a home run every now or then.
“But on a football field on first, second, third, fourth down, punt return and kick return, I can make a play. I felt like I was better at football. Looking back at it, I think it worked out.”
Current job: Tennessee Titans wide receiver
Drafted: 2016, Round 19, San Diego Padres
MLB player comp: Dodgers outfielder A.J. Pollock
Stat line: Brown was a standout on the Starkville (Mississippi) High baseball team, batting third. He hit “over .360” during his senior year, according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.
A.J. Brown was once a promising baseball prospect who was drafted by the San Diego Padres. David Banks/USA TODAY Sports
Famous baseball connection: Brown played with Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette in the 2015 Under Armour All-Star game. Brown said Bichette sent him an autographed jersey, and Brown plans to return the favor.
He said it: “My dad, he put a bat in my hand as soon as I could walk, and I was good at it,” Brown told ESPN’s Turron Davenport. “Baseball really helped me out with that for football. When you’re tracking a ball, especially a deep ball, it helped me a lot. I played center field in baseball. On a deep pass in football, you judge it and go track it just like a center fielder.”
Jameis Winston used to dream of being the next two-professional-sport star. AP Photo/Phil Sears
Current job: New Orleans Saints quarterback
Drafted: 2012, Round 15, Texas Rangers
MLB player comp: Diamondbacks pitcher Archie Bradley
Stat line: Over two seasons for Florida State, Winston appeared in 41 games, registering 52 strikeouts, nine saves and a 1.94 ERA in 60⅓ innings.
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Jameis Winston shares his thoughts on what MLB Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. meant to him at a young age, as well as if he thinks about what life could have been for him if he pursued a career playing baseball.
Scouting report: As a high school underclassman, he was a big-bodied, plus-running, switch-hitting center fielder with power and speed. By the time I first saw him, he was a high school senior and a below-average runner who was either a right-field or first-base fit. He had plus raw power, but his contact skills were just all right and obviously he never got the reps to improve there. On the mound, at his best, he sat 92-96 mph as a reliever in college and his curveball was a 55 on the 20-80 scale (above average), but his command was below average, so he projected as a middle reliever, a fourth- to sixth-round prospect for the draft who would pitch in the sixth through eighth innings if things went well in pro ball.– McDaniel
Famous baseball connection: Played at Florida State with future first-round picks OF DJ Stewart (Orioles) and RHP Luke Weaver
He said it: “Baseball was one of my passions just because I just felt so relentless when I was on that bump,” Winston told ESPN’s Jenna Laine. “You kind of felt individualized at times, because everyone saw when you made a mistake and everyone saw if you shined. And I really credit baseball to the way I am as a quarterback now because it’s the same way it is as a quarterback — everyone sees when you mess up and everyone sees when you shine.”
Current job:Atlanta Falcons tight end
Drafted: 2012, Round 17, Pittsburgh Pirates
Scouting report: I saw him pitch a few times in high school and the last one was just before the 2012 draft. He was well developed physically and got into the mid-90s with a breaking ball that flashed above average, but he had some reliever elements to his game. … His athleticism played as a hitter as well. — McDaniel
Stat line: Hurst was drafted as a relief pitcher who could reach 97 mph, but he also played some first base and designated hitter. Across the 2013-14 seasons with the Gulf Coast League Pirates, Hurst recorded 53 at-bats in 16 games, hitting .245 with two RBIs and a stolen base.
Famous baseball connection: Hurst played on the 2013 GCL Pirates team with Rays OF Austin Meadows.
He said it: “The biggest thing that I take from my experiences from baseball, as hard as it was, what I went through in those three seasons, it’s made me a pretty resilient person,” Hurst told ESPN’s David Newton in 2018. “Having that all taken away from me lit a fire under me. I don’t take anything for granted these days, and I’m going to outwork the next guy. It’s who I am and in my DNA right now.”
Current job: Free-agent quarterback
Drafted: 2004, Round 22, Los Angeles Angels
Scouting report: “He’s got a beautiful hack,” Hart High School baseball coach Jim Ozella said of Moore to the Los Angeles Times in 2001. “He’s an athlete.” Moore didn’t play baseball at UCLA, but while he was pursuing a college transfer for football, Moore was noticed by an Angels scout who spotted him playing in a Southern California rec league, and he was drafted as a third baseman.
Quote: “I had a lot of friends that went and played baseball out of high school. No offense to any of them, but it’s hard,” Moore told The Associated Press. “Baseball is a hard road to take and they were good players. I don’t look at it as I took the wrong road by any means.”
ESPN senior writer David Schoenfield contributed to this story.
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Maggie Bloomfield is a poet, lyricist, performer, and psychotherapist. She is author of Trains of Thought, (Local Gems Press, 2016), and has won first place three times in the Performance Poets Association (PPA) annual contest on Long Island. Her poems and essays have been published, in The Southampton Press (TSR), Oberon, Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Grabbing the Apple, The East Hampton Star, PoetryMagazine.com, Psychoanalytical Perspectives, The Montauk Anthology, The Suffolk County Poetry Review, The Nassau Review, Local Gems, and Bards Initiative. Maggie’s lyrics won an EMMY for contributions to Sesame Street. Maggie began writing poetry in 2007 and received an MFA from Stony Brook, Southampton in 2013. Maggie runs writing workshops, presents, and performs spoken word, alone, and with other “Poets of Well-Being,” in rehabs, at national writing conferences, and creative therapy conferences. She has performed spoken word at The Café Nuyorican in NYC and at The Green Mill in Chicago, and co-hosts Poetry Street, a monthly poetry venue, in Riverhead, NY. Sober for more than four decades, Maggie, with poet Susan Dingle, wrote and performed a one-act play, BREAK OUT! based on their parallel misadventures on Broadway and in Hollywood during the 70’s. It was produced at the Southampton Cultural Center in Southampton, NY in 2016, and was part of the LI Fringe Festival in Riverhead, NY in 2017.
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Maggie Bloomfield’s image-driven, precisely rendered poems plumb and distill decades of observation, memory, and dreams, testifying to the capacious agility of the human psyche. These poems teem with the intimate courage of self-reflection, offering a generous rather than indulgent view of an individual’s place in a flawed and wondrous world. Taking in the “strangely altered” New York skyline, for example, the question arises, “Has anything ever looked so precarious / other than my life / this morning?” Reading these poems will infuse the way you see your world and your self with urgently reverberating meaning. –LB Thompson, Poet. Professor The New School MFA program NYC & Suffolk County Community College
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Good Monday morning friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are ready to head back to the salt mines! Do any of you actually work in salt mines? No? That’s what I thought. Where did that expression come from anyway … I’ve never in my life known anybody who worked in salt mines. Sigh … now you know my curiosity is stoked and I have to know … hold on a sec …
According to one site, “This term alludes to the Russian practice of punishing prisoners by sending them to work in the salt mines of Siberia. Today the term is only used ironically.” So now you know … you’ve already learned something this week, and it’s only Monday morning!
Since I was lazy last Monday and didn’t provide coffee & donuts, I got up extra early this morning to bake some special treats. So, grab a cup and a snack, pull up a chair, and let’s see what fun things we can find to start out the week!
Squirrels, squirrels, squirrels!!!
Everywhere I looked for fun stories, it seems I came across … squirrels! The first one involves six baby squirrels who had the most unique problem … their tails were all tangled together!!!
Luckily, some good Samaritan noticed that something was not quite right, as the squirrels were all moving together as a single unit. Closer inspection showed their tails all tangled together. Animal control was called, and the babies were taken to the Nebraska Wildlife Rehab center where Laura Stastny gave them a mild sedative, covered them with a towel to comfort them, and went to work untangling. It turns out that tree sap was the culprit, making their tails sticky. After snipping off as much as she could of the sap-covered fur, Laura gently untangled them. They are doing fine, according to Laura, although several of them will need surgery to remove parts of their tails that were damaged while tangled.
One day last week, Kellen Moore of Gaylord, Michigan, started his car, but noticed a really strange noise that seemed to be coming from the air-conditioning. So, he turned the car off, got out and popped the hood, to find …
That’s right, folks … pinecones! About 50 pounds worth of pine cones, in fact. Turns out squirrels had been stashing the pinecones there … and it took Kellen and his co-worker Gabe Awrey nearly an hour to remove them all. Now … I’m a little puzzled and wondering just how long the car had been parked in the same spot, because it seems to me that it would take quite a long time for squirrels to carry that many pine cones and stash them under the hood.
A resident in the Southwark neighborhood of London last week called the RSPCA to report there was a squirrel stuck in their toilet! Animal Collection Officer Kirstie Gillard was able to put the handle of a mop into the toilet, the squirrel climbed onto the mop handle, and she was able to pull him out to safety. He was uninjured, and was released back into the wild.
Karamel is the squirrel’s name, and she lives in Turkey. No, not the bird, Joe, the country! Karamel was caught in a hunter’s trap 😠 and both her front legs had to be amputated. But now for the good news. In Istanbul, about 700 miles from Batman, Turkey, where Karamel was rescued, there is a man named Tayfun Demir, who is a rescuer of squirrels. Karamel was taken to Mr. Demir, who saw to her recovery and adopted her into his family of squirrels.
But Tayfun wanted more for Karamel … he wanted to help her regain her mobility, so he enlisted the help of professionals from Istanbul Aydın University who had experience in building prostheses and other mobility devices. It took a while for Karamel to recover, and a few tries before the mobility device was just right for her, but … well, see for yourself …
A squirrel-less tale …
Dushaun Henderson-Spruce submitted a U.S. Postal Service change of address form on Oct. 26, 2017 requesting a change of address from an address in Atlanta to the address of his apartment on Chicago’s North Side. The post office duly updated the address, and Henderson-Spruce began receiving mail at his new address. Only problem was, it wasn’t his mail he had diverted, but that of the United Parcel Service, commonly known as UPS!
No, he wasn’t receiving packages, but the address in Atlanta that he had changed to his own was the business office of UPS, and he began receiving mail addressed to UPS. The scam went on for three months, and prosecutors say that he deposited ten checks totaling $58,000 to his account during that time. The mail contained personal identifying information of employees, as well as business checks and invoices, according to the affadavit. He was also sent American Express corporate credit cards.
Finally, on 16 January, UPS realized something was not right and contacted the Postal Service. It took another 12 days, but finally on 25 January, postal inspectors searched Henderson-Spruce’s apartment in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood and found about 3,000 pieces of mail addressed to the company in Atlanta.
Now, Dushaun wasn’t too bright, for he tried briefly to claim that it was just a mix-up that wasn’t his fault, and that his identity had been stolen. Obviously that didn’t fly, and he now faces federal charges of mail theft, which carries a maximum sentence of five years, and mail fraud, which can be up to twenty years. I will refrain from any snarky comments about the efficiency of the USPS.
And last, but not least … take a look at these pictures.
Great photography, yes? No! These are not photographs, but paintings by Kei Mieno, a 33-year-old Japanese artist born in Hiroshima who has been painting professionally for more than 10 years. Kei specializes in hyperrealism, and the details and texture of his paintings are so precise that it‘s not difficult to confuse them with a photo.
Okay, my friends … let’s get this week started, shall we? It might help if I remind you that next Monday is a holiday in the U.S., Memorial Day, so you’ll be getting an extra day with your weekend, followed by a short work week! I hope you all have a wonderful and maybe even productive week this week. Please do remember to share those gorgeous smiles I see on your faces … they are too precious not to share! Love ‘n hugs from Filosofa.
An’ from me, Boo! ‘Member me?
A Squirrelly-Jolly Monday … Good Monday morning friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are ready to head back to the salt mines!
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