OT: Tennessee-bound jumbo dual-sport athlete

Submitted by Magnus on January 21st, 2019 at 8:03 AM

I'm not sure if anybody has paid attention to this recruiting oddity, but Georgia offensive lineman Parker Ball is headed to Tennessee to play football. He's a 6'4", 275 lb. center. 

That's not the weird part, though.

The weird part is that he's also going to play baseball. And he's not just a rotund first baseman like Cecil Fielder...or Prince Fielder...or John Kruk...or Mo Vaughn...

...he's a 6'4", 275 lb. pitcher. I know there have been big pitchers before like David Wells, C.C. Sabathia, Bartolo Colon, etc., but the combination of football center and baseball pitcher is a different one. Of course, if you want to get on the field playing interior offensive line (especially at 6'4"), you need to be close to 300 lbs., so he could very well get bigger during college.

This got me thinking about Michigan athletics. Have there been any jumbo dual-sport athletes at Michigan? I know some guys have played two sports, like Kelvin Grady, Tai Streets, etc., and Barry Larkin was a baseball player that Bo Schembechler tried to get to play football, too. There have been track guys (Tyrone Wheatley, Denard Robinson, Drake Johnson), but no hefty dudes I can remember.

outsidethebox

January 22nd, 2019 at 8:26 AM ^

Many, many of the top athletes have had to make a decision regarding which sport to pursue at a higher level. As a kid I "officiated" a fundraiser BB game between the Lions and our HS faculty. Charlie Sanders was a phenomenal TE but I bet he could have played pro hoops too-OMG was he an athlete!!!