If you think about it, the lives of a major league pro and a musician aren’t all that different. Both jobs involve performing in a different city night after night, and both require an enormous amount of time and energy to master. It’s no surprise, then, that a number of famous musicians have not only played baseball, but also excelled at it. From country singers who were baseball standouts in college to rappers who are as adept at hitting home runs as they are spitting rhymes. Here’s a look at some stars who could have become professionals if it weren’t for that annoying music career.
MC Hammer
Long before he hammered “U Can’t Touch This” into our collective heads, MC Hammer (real name Stanley Burrell) was already gaining major league experience as a child. Growing up in the Bay Area, the young Hammer worked as a batboy and clubhouse assistant for the Oakland A’s in the 1970s. (Legend has it that A’s owner Charles O. Finley saw the future rapper doing splits and selling lost balls in the Oakland Coliseum parking lot and hired him when he was just eleven years old.)
Hammer – a nickname given to him by A’s players because of his resemblance to “Hammerin'” Hank Aaron – later played baseball in high school and even received a tryout with the San Francisco Giants. Unfortunately, San Francisco passed on him. Hammer joined the Navy and later transitioned into the role of the two-hit wonder we know him as today. But anyone who has followed his performances on Rock N’ Jock Softball knows that his skills on the baseball field never wavered.
Conway Twitty
Unfortunately, today’s generation may only know him as a recurring joke on Family Guy, but before he became a cartoon punchline, Twitty was a country great. And before that, the legendary crooner almost played for the Philadelphia Phillies. As a standout player in high school and on semi-professional teams, the club – then under his real name, Harold Lloyd Jenkins – offered him a contract.
But with the Korean War in full swing, he was drafted into the Army and had to give up his baseball dreams. However, Twitty never lost his passion for the sport, and in the 1970s he and some country music colleagues helped found the Nashville Sounds, a minor league team that still exists today. Seth MacFarlane should imitate him first.
Nelly
The St. Louis rapper, actor and fitness guru excelled on the baseball field and found stability in the game after his parents divorced and he found himself living with various relatives. In high school, he was named MVP of the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association All-Star Game and was scouted by the St. Louis Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
At the same time, however, he formed his first rap group – the St. Lunatics – and scored a regional hit with the single “Gimme What U Got”, which led him to pursue a music career instead. Within a few years, he had the world wearing band-aids under their eyes and spelling words with double R’s, helping to put the Midwest on the hip-hop map.
Billy Ray Cyrus
Today he is best known as Miley’s father. But long before his famous daughter was born – and before Billy Ray became a mullet heartthrob thanks to “Achy Breaky Heart” – he was well on his way to baseball stardom. As a high school player in his native Kentucky, Cyrus earned a scholarship to Georgetown College in the Bluegrass State.
But then life threw him a curveball. While in college, he attended a Neil Diamond concert and was so inspired that he dropped out, swapped his racket for a guitar and formed a band. Who would have thought that “Sweet Caroline” could have such an impact?
Jason Aldean
Country superstar Jason Aldean has 14 number one country hits. But before he stormed the charts, his future seemed to lie in baseball. Raised in Macon, Georgia, the future star was a standout player at Windsor Academy, a prestigious private school.
While Aldean regularly hit the ball out of the park on the field, he struggled in class and struggled to graduate. When high school ended – despite several scholarship offers – he said goodbye to his baseball dreams and skipped college to avoid having to spend four more years of school. Apparently the decision paid off: just yesterday he won Entertainer of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards.
Kenny Chesney
Known for his extensive collection of baseball caps as well as his highly successful country music career, Chesney grew up in Tennessee but became an ardent Boston Red Sox fan. (“We didn’t have cable,” he told ESPN, “and the only games on free-to-air TV always seemed to be the Red Sox or Cincinnati Reds.”)
He later played baseball and football at Gibbs High School in Corryton, Tennessee and excelled on the field. He eventually left the sport behind and began his long rise to stardom – but he still enjoys hanging out with the Red Sox whenever he gets the chance.
Another country star who grew up loving sports, Church played baseball, basketball, football and golf until a knee injury as a sophomore in high school derailed his professional plans.
Instead, he went to Nashville, where he found his place – and ultimately great success – as a proud outsider. He’s a huge college football fan, but his signature baseball cap (and Kent Tekulve sunglasses) reveal where his loyalties really lie.
Robert Pollard
As the center of the Guided by Voices universe, Bob Pollard has recorded music (literally) for decades and earned a loyal fan base without ever scoring a mainstream hit. Interestingly, this aversion to hits goes back to his days as a pitcher.
Between the ages of ten and twenty, he is said to have thrown a dozen no-hitters, including the first in Wright State University baseball history. However, Pollard did not pursue a professional career in sports after college and instead focused on a music career that Jack McDowell could only have dreamed of.
Ronnie Van Zant
When the late Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman was growing up in Jacksonville, Florida, he had intermittent interests in boxing (Muhammad Ali was one of his idols) and baseball. Van Zant pursued the latter particularly successfully and even played for a team in the American Legion League. “The next step would have been Double-A,” he recalled.
“I had the highest batting average in the league one year and a good arm – you need a good arm to play in the outfield.” As a reminder, Van Zant played center field.
Honorable Mention: John Fogerty
The Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman was never scouted by a major league team. But Fogerty is the man behind perhaps the greatest baseball song of all time.
His 1985 hit “Centerfield” is ubiquitous in baseball stadiums and perfectly captures the spirit of the game – so much so that in 2010 he became the only musician ever to be honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame. “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” has to top that first.
