It’s hard to imagine Patrick Mahomes with anything other than a football in his hand. We know him as the three-time MVP quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs who led the team to back-to-back Super Bowl wins. However, e aware that “Magic” Mahomes tried his hand at baseball too and was a star there too!
When you look at his parentage, his baseball skills don’t seem too surprising. With former MLB pitcher Pat Mahomes as his father and LaTroy Hawkins as his godfather, Mahomes has seen baseball since his childhood. Thankfully for us NFL fans, the QB chose football as his sole focus in his sophom*ore year, but a recent viral clip from his high school days makes one ponder: what if…?
When Patrick Mahomes faced the now-Chicago White Sox pitcher
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During his teenage years at Texas’ Whitehouse High School, Mahomes didn’t just play football. The multifaceted powerhouse of talent played baseball, basketball, and, of course, football. Back in 2014, his school team, the Whitehouse Wildcats, faced the Mount Pleasant Tigers. Both teams had familiar faces who are now stars in their own domains.
MLB pitcher Michael Kopech’s Mount played against Mahomes’ Wildcats but were defeated by a final score of 2-1, all thanks to a 16-strikeout no-hitter by the Chiefs’ QB. While Kopech went on to make a career in baseball, Mahomes took the high school win in 2014.
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Patrick Mahomes once tossed a 16-strikeout no-hitter while in high school. Oh, the losing pitcher in that game? White Sox pitcher Michael Kopech.pic.twitter.com/BsB3I1Gj8h
— Baseball’s Greatest Moments (@BBGreatMoments) April 6, 2024
The young pitchers were in their senior years, and the Chicago White Sox pitcher had opened up about their rivalry in a Soxfest interview.
“For some reason, we really hated their team, and I don’t know if their team hated our team back,” Kopech shared. “We really decided that we wanted to beat Whitehouse more than any other team we played. We were able to really compete but kind of build a friendship out of everything because we knew that we wanted to compete at the next level. It was much deeper than a high school baseball game for both of us. Those were always the most fun games, pitching against him.”
While Mahomes was equally respected in the baseball pitch from a young age, the future Super Bowl champ decided to focus on football after his sophom*ore year of college. So what if the college athlete hadn’t fixated on the NFL and instead followed in his father’s footsteps?
Would we have seen Mahomes do his magic on the baseball pitch?
With baseball genes running in his blood and mentor figures from the MLB, it’s a no-brainer that Mahomes wouldn’t have struggled if he decided to pursue baseball. And he was pretty close to doing so as well! The MaxPreps Male Athlete of the Year was already considered a shining prospect for the 2014 MLB draft.
We could have even seen him play for the Detroit Tigers, who picked him in the 37th round, but Mahomes was dead set on his football career at Texas Tech. The Chiefs star’s tryst with baseball came to an end in his junior year, but his skills helped him even while throwing in the NFL. As for his high school rival, the two are now on friendly terms, excelling in their respecting domains, with Mahomes also complimenting the pitcher a couple of years on his ten strikeouts within four innings.
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I know he isn’t on the right team but my guy is a monster! https://t.co/Q3ydXLIntI
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) April 25, 2021
Kopech reciprocates the appreciation and shared previously that he sees the MVP as a pitcher and not as an NFL star. “In my opinion, Pat Mahomes, the pitcher, also plays football,” he said, as per MLB. “To everybody else, it was probably the other way around…I thought he was going to sign when he got drafted. I thought he would get drafted higher than he did, but he wanted to play football. He knew what he wanted to do, and obviously, that’s panning out for him pretty well.”
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While it would have been interesting to see a Mahomes vs Kopech faceoff in the MLB, the Chiefs Kingdom wouldn’t wish for things to be any different. The quarterback is in full preparation mode this offseason to fulfill his promise of achieving a three-peat in the 2024 season.
Read This: EXCLUSIVE: 5 NFL Lessons Patrick Mahomes Gained From Baseball and MLB Dad, Per NY Mets Ex-GM
