How baseball unites NFL and Super Bowl LVIII stars Patrick Mahomes and Brock Purdy

The Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers are expected to be two of the stars of Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas on 11 Febraruy. But it turns out playing quarterback is not the only thing the pair have in common, as both as the sons of former professional baseball players.

Pat Mahomes was a Major League pitcher for 11 seasons, while Shawn Purdy turned out in the minor leagues for eight years as a reliever. Both were drafted by MLB teams, although one ended up having a slightly more successful career than the other.

Shawn Purdy’s minor league baseball career

The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Purdy out of Valencia Community College in the 46th round in 1987, but he decided not to turn pro at that time. In 1989, the Kansas City Royals then took him as 44th overall pick from Indian River State College, only for Purdy to opt to return to school once again.

After transferring to the University of Miami, the reliever was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 26th round of the 1990 MLB Draft and the California Angels as 16th overall pick a year later. From there, Purdy had an eight-year career in the minor leagues but never got the call to make the step up to the Big Show.

In the final two seasons of his career, he played at Triple-A level but was forced to call time on his playing days because of an arm injury while playing with the Richmond Braves in 1998. He ended his career with a 58-37 record and posted a 3.91 ERA overall.

Three of Purdy’s minor league seasons were with the San Francisco Giants, where he played with future MLB players such as Rich Aurilia, Shawn Estes and Russ Ortiz.

Pat Mahomes’ 11 seasons in MLB

Mahomes, meanwhile, was drafted by the Minnesota Twins (initially for the Elizabethon Twins) in the sixth round of the 1988 MLB Draft. During his MLB career, Mahomes was 42-39 with a of 5.47 ERA while playing for the Twins, the Boston Red Sox, the New York Mets, the Texas Rangers, the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes spent plenty of time in MLB locker rooms as a child because of his father. Although he has gone on to become one of NFL’s biggest stars, Mahomes II also played baseball at Whitehouse High School in Texas and was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 2014 MLB Draft, but chose not to sign a contract to pursue a career in football.

Baseball affects Chiefs quarterback’s throwing

Before he began playing in NFL, former Oakland Raiders head coach and television analyst Joe Gruden spotted during a college quarterback camp Mahomes had a peculiar wrist action when throwing a football, which he had a simple explanation for: “It’s because I’ve been a shortstop all my life.”

While a student at Texas Tech, Mahomes played as shortstop, outfielder and sometimes a relief pitcher in one season of college baseball.

While the world missed out on the chance to see a potential MLB infielder, that would have come at the expense of one of the greatest quarterbacks in history. It seems as if Mahomes II made the right call.