Johnny Manziel could have also starred in baseball

It’s really too bad Johnny Manziel ended up playing football at Texas A&M. Oh sure, he won something called the Heisman Trophy and led the Aggies to a Cotton Bowl win, but think about what the rest of us were denied?

What if I told you Johnny Football could have been Johnny Baseball? We can sit here and wonder today whether Manziel could have been the next Mike Trout.

According to this excellent story by Yahoo Sports, Manziel was an outstanding baseball player who gave up the sport to pursue his football dreams.

That didn’t work out so badly, but Manziel might have had it all had he chosen another college.

Manziel chose Texas A&M only after pulling out of his oral football commitment at Oregon. Former Ducks coach Chip Kelly said Manziel broke his heart.

More than that, Oregon was going to let Manziel play football and baseball.

Manziel once told a scout in high school that “I’d rather play baseball more than anything.”

Scouts projected Manziel as a center fielder with blazing speed and pop in his bat. In his junior year in high school, Manziel batted .416 with seven home runs and 35 RBIs.

He missed his senior year because he graduated at the semester and enrolled early at Texas A&M. Any thought of playing baseball in College Station ended when Manziel beat Jameill Showers for the starting quarterback job.

Texas A&M baseball Coach Rob Childress told Yahoo Sports: “I would have liked to have seen Johnny Baseball, but Johnny Football was pretty good here.”

Yeah, but we could have seen it all. Russell Wilson, who just won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks, played football and baseball in college.

And Jameis Winston, who led Florida State to the last year’s BCS title, is the closer for the Seminoles’ baseball team.

Bo Jackson knew football AND baseball. It’s too bad Manziel didn’t get the chance.