Every time – and it happens pretty frequently – that Johnathon Tripp hears a commentator on a National Football League broadcast describe a Patrick Mahomes throw as “impossible” he gives a little laugh. “It’s really difficult but obviously it’s not impossible, because he’s doing it,” Tripp, Mahomes’ former Texas Tech baseball teammate, told me via telephone. “And I know where it comes from. It comes from baseball.” As Mahomes prepares to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback gave a self-deprecating assessment on Wednesday of his time on the diamond for the Red Raiders, which saw just one ill-fated pitching outing as a freshman before he decided to focus on football. Yeah, the gridiron thing has worked out pretty well. “I think I have an infinity ERA, which isn’t probably a good one,” Mahomes told reporters. “That’s something I’m not very proud to have on my record.” He’s right about the ERA. His sole pitching appearance came on Feb. 21, 2015, against Northern Illinois. Introduced into the game with Texas Tech leading 6-0 in the ninth inning, Mahomes walked Carl Russell, drilled Malique Ziegler in the backside with a fastball, then walked Justin Fletcher on five pitches. Each of the three would score, spawning the undesirable ERA, and Mahomes never pitched competitively again. Yet don’t be fooled into thinking his college baseball career was a negative. Indeed, the sport may have given him the ability to make game announcers and fans alike shake their heads in wonderment. Tripp, who signed with the Cincinnati Reds organization in 2019 and is currently playing with the Florence Y’Alls (formerly Florence Freedom) of the Frontier League, regularly notices baseball techniques every time he watches Mahomes play for the Chiefs. “Like when he rolls out of the pocket to the right and lets off one of those throws – you’ve seen it – which is literally a sidearm throw on the run across his body,” Tripp, who had a locker stall next to Mahomes at Texas Tech, said. “It is similar to a slow roller where the shortstop grabs it. It is very common for shortstops and third basemen to have the arm that low because of the momentum. It looks weird in football but I’m sure it feels natural to him. “Then, when a linebacker is blitzing up the middle, Patrick might be back-pedaling and looking left and right. He will drop his arm real low and get it out as fast as he can to get it around a defensive player. It’s an unbelievable throw, it’s so athletic. But if you’re a baseball player, it’s not impossible.” Mahomes’ baseball roots run deep. His father, Pat Sr., won 42 games in a major league career that included stops with the Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates. Patrick himself starred at Whitehouse High School, was drafted in the 37th round by the Detroit Tigers and previously, at 14, helped lead Rose Capital East to the Junior League World Series championship game. In college, he held serious aspirations of trying to excel in both sports, but the scheduling rigors ultimately proved too demanding. With football and pitching requiring different physiology, Mahomes had bulked up during a freshman football season that saw him play the final four games and memorably light up Baylor for six touchdowns. Teammate Dylan Dusek said Mahomes made an admirable effort to be at the baseball field whenever he could, but that football commitments severely impacted his practice opportunities. “In spring, he rarely participated in an entire practice with us, as he either had weights or something involved with football,” Dusek said in an email. “Pat was a great pitcher, (but) just one semester of fully focusing on football can deter you from your full capability in baseball. We all knew he had the talent, if he would have been there the entire year there is no doubt he would have been a great player for us.” Coach Tim Tadlock loved having Mahomes around, correctly assuming his positivity would have an uplifting effect on the group. After the Northern Illinois game, Mahomes did not pitch again, but stayed on as a backup infielder. During a weather delay in a game at Kansas State, he grabbed a spare football as the team stretched at an indoor training facility and hurled passes for his teammates. “He had a lot of positive energy about him,” Ryan Moseley, now a pitcher in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, told me. For Moseley, and the rest of the players I spoke to, the most memorable part of Mahomes’ one trip to the mound wasn’t how he played. “It was the huge standing ovation that he got,” Moseley added. “He was pretty muscular at that point and his velocity was down. It was tough for him because he didn’t have the pitching reps in because he’d been busy with football. But he came in with everyone standing up and cheering for him. “He pitched, he got taken out and it was the same again – a standing ovation. The fans were so into it, having the QB out there pitching. You could see he was bummed and had this kind of embarrassed little smile. But everyone had his back.” When the team needed a rally, Mahomes could be relied upon to try to spark one with encouraging words and several players said they sensed he enjoyed being part of a more normal college experience, going to parties, relaxing with the guys, away from the intensity that is football in Texas. “I think the baseball experience actually fueled him in some way,” teammate Hunter Hargrove said. “He always wanted to be the best (Mahomes was intensely competitive in locker room ping pong games). How baseball worked out maybe made him see that football was for him but also that he saw what it was like to struggle and it pushed him on further. “He’s human, even though it doesn’t always look like it when he plays football. The funniest thing is to see him now in commercials and all that, because he is such a regular guy – and a good guy.” Mahomes now finds himself in the biggest game in football for the second year in a row and while his old baseball crew support different NFL teams, they’re all honorary Chiefs fans. Tripp saw him most recently at a Dallas Stars game a couple of years ago and said Mahomes was unaffected by the fame, fortune and spotlight that now occupies his current reality. He also believes the sight of what Mahomes can do with his arm on the gridiron is a welcome reminder that playing multiple sports – in an era where early age specialization becomes increasingly prominent – can only help a young athlete. That said, don’t expect NFL QBs to start routinely nailing the “impossible” throws anytime soon. “Yeah, it’s a baseball throw,” Tripp added. “But he’s doing it with a football – not a baseball – while there are a bunch of guys trying to tackle him. So, it’s still pretty ridiculous.” Here’s what others have said … Brooke Pryor, ESPN: “Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is great at a lot of things. Heck, he’s better than nearly everyone at most of them. But despite Mahomes being the son of a former major league reliever … pitching at the college level isn’t one of them.” Shannon Sharpe, Undisputed: “As far as just throwing the ball, athleticism and a baseball background, I can see where coach Vic Fangio would say Patrick Mahomes does remind you a little of John Elway.” Tim Grieve, Detroit Tigers scout: “He was the best player on the field or on the court in three different sports. It wasn’t like you were just talking about one sport, one position. I’m pretty sure he would’ve been good at whatever he wanted to do.” |
