This week’s Sports Illustrated has a poll asking MLB players “which athlete in another sport would make the best baseball player?” and LeBron James finished second with 13 percent of the vote, behind Michael Vick at 16 percent.
James is obviously an amazing athlete, but as Jon Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer explains he isn’t much of a baseball player:
Just after James was drafted, he took batting practice with the Reds in Cleveland. There was some kind of Nike-Ken Griffey Jr. connection. Anyway, James was the single worst hitter I’ve seen among athletes taking BP. He looked like he had never swung a bat. He hardly got any out of the cage. Tom Hume was throwing. He kept slowing it down and down. Finally, he was just trying to hit James’ bat. This was before iPhones that took video or you’d be able to find on You Tube.
Michael Vick, on the other hand, played baseball in high school and was actually drafted by the Rockies in the 30th round back in 2000.