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Alex Rodriguez had an incredible baseball career, and while some athletes can cross over sports it’s a good thing A-Rod stuck to the diamond.
On Friday, the retired professional MLB player shared a hilarious video on the basketball court, attempting to make some three-point shots. “This is Why I Played Baseball,” he wrote over the video.
A-Rod tried his best, ending with 0 three-point baskets. Laughing, the 47-year-old said, “0 for 3, that’s all I got. Beautiful!.” “Mike would not say bang!” he added, likely referencing Michael Jordan.
While he wasn’t successful in basketball, the athlete does have a history in another sport. Before pro baseball, Rodriguez was a high school football star in Florida. But by his junior year, he was emerging as one of the best baseball players in the country.
The University of Miami actually offered Rodriguez a scholarship to play quarterback for the Hurricanes. But he committed to baseball and stopped playing football his senior year to focus on the sport.
“He had size, he had speed, he had smarts,” Pete Garcia, who was Miami’s recruiting coordinator at the time, told Fox Sports. “They were recruiting him for baseball, but we were recruiting him for football, too.”
He did not end up attending college and was drafted directly out of high school in the 1993 MLB Draft by the Seattle Mariners.
Obviously, Rodriguez made the right choice because he is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time as a 14-time All-Star and three American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards.
He also ranks fourth on the all-time MLB home run list with 696 career home runs. He is also the youngest player to join the 500-home run club, reaching the milestone when he was 32.