Great athletes are just that; great athletes. It usually
means that they are above average and have the ability to succeed at a high
level in multiple sports. Sometimes this can include a sport in which the
athlete knows little or nothing about. It’s also referred to as natural talent
or natural ability. Generally speaking it kinds of makes sense. All specific
sports were man-made, while the ability is in the DNA strand.
When thinking about the professional multi-sport athlete
a couple of obvious ones come to mind. The one that is in a league by his own,
no pun intended, is the phenom Vincent Jackson. You know, Bo. Jackson is likely
considered by many as the best “Overall” professional athlete in the history of
athletes. It would be pretty hard to debate that. No reason to bore you with
the details, just watch the ESPN 30 on 30 that will tell you everything you
want to know. For those under a rock, he was one of the best running backs in
football history and an excellent outfielder in baseball. The kicker was –
those accolades were effective at the same time.
As it relates to baseball, there are a few specific plays
or acts that stand out during Bo’s career. They are both pretty well documented
in the ESPN show. Thinking more about it there are three actually. The first is
the sound of the ball hitting the bat which was recalled by a scout. The claim
is that it was a unique specific “Perfect” sound heard last when Babe Ruth was
in the box. The second is in his first at bat in which he demolished a pitch
about 30 rows back into the seats off Hall of Famer Steve Carlton. The pitch
was foul by inches and he settled for one of most exciting infield singles you
will ever see. What looked like an average ground out to the second baseman
ended in a hit with Bo two full strides past first base by the time the ball
got there. Just a great at bat against arguably one of the best left handed
pitchers ever. YouTube the at-bat when you get a chance.
The third is the one likely most popular which is simply
known as “The throw”. It’s also a reason to go to YouTube for the visual
reminder. Jackson barehanded a ball hit off the left-field fence while standing
within the warning track. While this was happening, Harold Reynolds, who
started the play on first base and part of a hit-and –run, was rounding third
for what looked to be an easy run. Bo missed the cut-off man, likely on
purpose. He threw out Reynolds on a fly from the warning track. Probably one of
the best outfield putouts ever.
The other popular multi-sport star is Deion Sanders. Deion
doesn’t have the accolades or list of famous plays like Bo, but he was an
awesome football player, likely one of the best defensive players ever, while
at the same time being a pretty good baseball player for nine seasons. Deion
had speed on the base-paths, with 38 steals one year in two-thirds of a season.
Sanders was also able to hit for average, usually hitting around .280+ with one
season at .304. Not bad for his second sport.
Deion is in the short list of athletes Mr. Clutch refers
to as “Timeless”, which means at 49 years of age he could likely suit up today
and get a hit or two while playing a better than average center field. The
other obvious one on that list is Ricky Henderson. There are a few notable
facts for Prime Time, his well-deserved nick name. One is that he built up a
pretty nice dossier of stats without every playing a complete season, mostly
due to football obligations. Also, he is the only player in history to compete
in two major sports in the same day. He had an NFL regular season game in the
afternoon and an MLB playoff game in the night. That’s flashbacks of Mr.
Clutch’s days of playing two softball double-headers in the same day. It was
school-yard concrete league in the morning and grass arc league in the late
afternoon.
The third notable would have to be Michael Jordan. Also
the subject or an ESPN 30 on 30, where his attempt at a baseball career was
well documented. Though not making it beyond AA ball, Jordan did steal 30 bases
that year while batting a shade over .200. Rumor had it that he worked out
excessively and was the hardest working player on the team. It goes to show you
that sometimes pure talent and hard work just isn’t enough. One notable item
here is that the brother of one of Mr. Clutch’s former colleagues played with
Jordan in Birmingham. It was longtime Angels SS Gary DiSarcina, who’s brother
was Geno. Geno claimed to be a better player than his MLB brother and was a
left handed third-baseman.
There are also famous multi-sport athletes who decided to
only play one sport at the professional level. Two to point out were the last
two in history to be drafted in three major sports. Dave Winfield was drafted in baseball,
football and basketball. Winfield of course chose baseball, in which he had a
hall of fame career. The other, and slightly more obscure, was Charlie Ward.
Ward, the Heisman award winning football player, was drafted “For real” in
football and basketball. He chose basketball, in which he had a good 10 year
career with Knicks. The obscure part is that as a publicity stunt he was
drafted by the Brewers in the 59th round of the MLB draft that year.
The obscurity was that he never played high-level organized baseball. Charlie
was probably good enough of an athlete to get that done!
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