Tom Brady takes batting practice with Rob Gronkowski

May 24th, 2022

In the 18th round of the 1995 MLB Draft, the Montrel Expos drafted a little-known high school catcher named Tom Brady. Twenty-six years later, Brady stands alone as the last active Expos Draft pick -- just not in the way anyone from the team’s brain trust would have imagined. 

On Tuesday, the seven-time Super Bowl champion showed he still knows his way around a baseball diamond, as he posted a video on Twitter of him getting some swings in with longtime teammate Rob Gronkowski shagging in the outfield.

In the video, Brady, clad in football cleats and a playsheet, joked that it had been a “long [freaking] time” since he swung a bat, while his trainer Alex Guerrero said that Brady wouldn’t be able to hit a ball over the fence.

And while Brady wasn’t able to knock one out of the park, he did show some pop, hitting one ball to dead center field that got over Gronkowski’s head (Gronk's defensive position was a little suspect), before hitting another ball to right-center field that Gronkowski caught.

The video didn’t go unnoticed in the baseball world, either. Mike Trout let the GOAT know the video caught his eye (replying simply with “👀”) while the Nationals poked fun at the situation, quoting with a tweet that read “we’ve recently moved but offer still stands” with a photo of Brady in a Nationals uniform photoshopped onto the infamous “I am 12” meme from “The Benchwarmers.”

Though he was drafted by the Expos, Brady elected to play football at the University of Michigan before being selected by the Patriots with the 199th overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft. The rest is history, as Brady currently stands as the all-time NFL leader in touchdown passes (624), career pass completions (7,263), passing yards (84,520) and QB career wins (243).

That said, Brady’s winning ways started on the diamond, as his team won the CCS Baseball Championship when he was a junior in high school. Despite only hitting eight home runs in his two varsity seasons at Junipero Serra High School, Brady once hit a home run off his team's bus that woke up the bus driver and reportedly hit a dinger at the Kingdome with a wooden bat during a pre-Draft workout for the Mariners.

Despite sticking strictly to football, Brady’s still found his way onto a professional diamond from time to time, as he celebrated the Patriots’ fourth Super Bowl win by throwing out the first pitch at a Red Sox game in 2015 (coincidentally against the Nationals) before returning to the mound two years later to throw out another first pitch to Dustin Pedroia.

While Brady obviously elected to pursue a career in the NFL, it's not hard to imagine an alternate universe where he and Vladimir Gurrero lit up Olympic Stadium together. Instead, we got to watch Brady dominate on the football field and then just tease us with some hacks at home plate. Lucky us.