Buck Showalter is currently the manager for the New York Mets, the fifth MLB team he has managed. | Wikimedia Commons/Arturo Pardavila III
Buck Showalter is currently the manager for the New York Mets, the fifth MLB team he has managed. | Wikimedia Commons/Arturo Pardavila III
Current New York Mets manager Buck Showalter managed Deion Sanders in Albany before Sanders got called up to the Yankees in 1989, and now Showalter fondly remembers those golden days.
“There was a level of speed unlike I ever saw on a ball field,” Showalter said, according to the Major League Baseball website. “I remember the first time I saw him steal second base in Albany, and it damn near took my breath away."
When asked about how good Sanders would have been if he had stuck to baseball, instead of playing both baseball and football professionally, Showalter said, “He could have been as good as he wanted to be. He is one of the best prospects I had. Ever.”
Deion Sanders
| Wikimedia Commons/Erik Daniel Drost
Sanders played in a total of nine MLB seasons and 14 in the NFL. He was one of the greatest defensive backs the league has ever seen.
“You want to know how fast he was? We finally couldn’t let him participate in rundown drills. Guys would be doing the fundamentals exactly right, but they couldn’t get him out. Could. Not. Get. Him. Out. I finally just told him to just get out. The guys were doing it right and thought they had to be doing it wrong because they couldn’t get him out. It was like he was changing all the rules of rundown plays just by being out there,” Showalter said, according to MLB.
Sanders, who played baseball for the Atlanta Braves from 1991 to 1994, entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
“He called one time when I was managing the Orioles and told me he was in town,” Showalter said. “When he got to Camden Yards, he asked if he could take some swings. Then during batting practice, he hit three home runs. In street clothes.”
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