Deion’s Schedule May Be Two Much

Unlike Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders has decided to play two sports simultaneously. Deion doesn’t intend to wait for baseball season to end so that he can play football. Deion is doing both. Deion is the ultimate sports bigamist. He is a double player.

Doing two things at once can be done. You can, say, be an actor as well as a waiter. Or write for the Daily Planet and also fight crime. It’s known as being versatile. They call it moonlighting.

Some say: Beware of spreading yourself too thin. Others say: You can never be too rich or too thin. Double-dippin’ Deion definitely made himself a couple of million dollars richer by working overtime. The Atlanta Falcons, however, would like to fatten up Deion from his Atlanta Brave baseball playing weight.

The big advantage for Sanders is that he can do both jobs in the same city. Bo Jackson had to fly a thousand miles before he could buckle up a chin strap. Jackson couldn’t practice football in Los Angeles and play baseball in Kansas City on the same day, not unless he really did change clothes inside a phone booth.

Sanders can--practice football and play baseball in the same town, that is--and has.

He reported to practice Thursday with the Falcons, spent 2 1/2 hours in Suwanee stepping through radial tires or whatever it is football players do, then drove 55 m.p.h. across town on Interstate 85--or was it 85 m.p.h. on I-55?--changed costume and pinch-ran for the Braves in the ninth inning, scoring the winning run.

Good thing the Hawks weren’t in season. Deion would have guarded Dominique Wilkins.

I hesitate to think what could happen by the time Atlanta plays host to the 1996 Summer Olympics. Deion in the pole vault. Deion in a kayak. Deion on the parallel bars. Deion in the platform diving. Deion in judo. We wouldn’t have a Dream Team. We would have a Deion Team. The only place he wouldn’t be is in the synchro swimming. He would be in the schizo swimming.

When Sanders started out with the New York Yankees, he did not look like much of a baseball player. Then the Yankees did what they do with almost all of their young and promising baseball prospects. They let him go. Deion went to Atlanta and became a very fine ballplayer. Then he became two very fine ballplayers. He should play for the Twins. If he were twins, like the Canseco brothers, Deion could be a quadruple threat.

How long can the man for two seasons go on? Hard to say. Bo Jackson, who seemed made of steel, broke apart like balsa. Now Bo is 29 years old and is playing nothing. Howie Long of the Raiders once said: “It’s like Bo is Secretariat and I’m Mister Ed.” Well, you can still see Mister Ed, but Secretariat is long gone.

I don’t know what Deion would do if Atlanta was playing a World Series game in, say, Oakland. Perhaps as long as he had Sundays off to play football, the Falcons wouldn’t mind his missing practice. Or maybe Deion could continue to join these games in progress.

“Two out, top of the ninth! Atlanta down by a run! While Oakland Manager Tony La Russa talks to Dennis Eckersley out there on the mound, let’s bring you up to date on some of today’s NFL scores: Buffalo 80, Rams 7. Raiders over the Broncos, 21-20, on Vince Evans’ three touchdown passes. And Atlanta won another one at home, this time on Deion Sanders’ 98-yard punt return.

“La Russa goes back to the dugout now. Terry Pendleton on first, Brian Hunter due up. And . . . looks like we’re going to get a pinch-hitter for Hunter. Let’s see who it is. It’ll be . . . say! That looks like . . . is that Deion Sanders picking up a bat? I can’t quite see from here. Yes, here he comes!

“And he’s wearing a football jersey! Ladies and gentlemen, Deion Sanders is changing clothes on his way to home plate. There goes the shirt. Now there go the shoulder pads. The umpire is pointing to his wristwatch. Deion takes off his Rolex wristwatch. No, now the umpire explains to Deion that he just wants him to hurry up. Deion removes his 32 gold chains, buttons up his baseball shirt and steps into the batter’s box.

“Eckersley is ready. Here’s the pitch. And Sanders drives it . . . deep to right field! Back, back . . . she is gone!

“Deion pumps his fist around second base, blind-sides the shortstop, clothes-lines the third baseman slams into the catcher!”

Might get a little confusing out there at times.