Tom Brady Reflects On Baseball Career That Never Happened
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Twenty-one years ago to the day, the Montreal Expos took a flyer on a catcher out of Junipero Serra High School in California with an 18th-round pick in the MLB draft. The kid didn't end up signing. Instead he went to Michigan to pursue a long shot career as a quarterback.
And the six-state region of New England is forever thankful.
On Thursday, the currently suspended quarterback took a moment to briefly reflect on what could have been had he made the jump to pro baseball as an 18-year-old.
21 years ago today I was fortunate to be selected by the Expos in the 1995 MLB Draft. But.....I'm so happy I stuck with football! What do you guys think?
Posted by Tom Brady on Thursday, June 2, 2016
Given that he's now arguably the very best quarterback to ever play the sport of football and that the worst thing anyone can say about him is that he's top-five, it's a career decision that's really worked out for Brady. But at the time, way back in 1995, the idea would have seemed preposterous.
"At the time, I thought his future was in baseball," Pete Jensen, Brady's baseball coach, told the New York Daily News in 2008. "He could really throw."
Serra's athletic director during Brady's time at the school told ESPN that he remembered Brady more for baseball than football.
"Surprisingly, he was getting more attention for baseball," John Kirby, Brady's former teammate, told Bleacher Report. "We all thought he was going to be a pro baseball player. He was a really good catcher.
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Even Brady's own father thought his son would end up gripping red seams instead of white ones. (Please, nobody let Chris "Mad Dog" Russo know that Brady's father once spoke publicly.)
"Even getting out of high school, we thought his career would be in baseball," the elder Brady told Yahoo. "Eventually, football just kind of became his sport of choice."
Suffice it to say, with four Super Bowls, three Super Bowl MVPs, two MVPs, 58,000 passing yards, 428 touchdowns, and a guaranteed spot among the all-time greats in Canton, Brady probably sleeps easy at night knowing he made the right choice. The Patriots aren't too torn up by his decision either.
But, hey, if he's really feeling wistful for his days on the diamond, maybe he should take a quick trip over to Buffalo next weekend and sock a few dingers for the home crowd.