North Gwinnett News

Buck Showalter, veteran MLB manager and current manager of the New York Mets, fondly remembers Deion Sanders’ baseball days, noting that unusual speed made him one of a kind.  

"There was a level of speed unlike I ever saw on a ball field," Showalter told the Major League Baseball website. "I remember the first time I saw him steal second base in Albany, and it damn near took my breath away.

Sanders played nine MLB seasons and 14 in the National Football League on his way to a Hall of Fame career as one of the greatest defensive backs of all time. His baseball career included several seasons in Atlanta between 1991 and 1994.

Deion Sanders | Wikimedia Commons/Erik Daniel Drost

"You want to know how fast he was? We finally couldn't let him participate in rundown drills," Showalter told the MLB website. "Guys would be doing the fundamentals exactly right, but they couldn't get him out. Could. Not. Get. Him. Out. I finally just told him to just get out. The guys were doing it right and thought they had to be doing it wrong because they couldn't get him out. It was like he was changing all the rules of rundown plays just by being out there."

The former Florida State star was elected to the NFL Hall of Fame in 2011.

Sanders played for Showalter in the Yankees system at the Double-A level before being called up to the major leagues. Showalter was asked what he thought about Sanders' stats could be like if he played baseball only, rather than playing both football and baseball professionally.

"A .310 average, something like that, because he could get a little homer happy sometimes," Showalter said. "Fifteen to 20 homers. Score 100 runs a year on the right team. Steal 50 bases. Play center. Lead the league in triples every year. Impact games in so many different ways, people would have lost count."