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| Johnny Manziel drafted by the Padres. Photo Credit: USA Today |
In the MLB Draft, we got to see the top picks be selected by the teams who have been targeting them for months even years in some cases.The San Diego Padres though chose to make a splashy pick with their 28th round pick: Johnny Manziel. Yes that Johnny Manziel of Heisman Trophy fame and 22nd overall pick by the Cleveland Browns of the NFL. It certainly generated quite the buzz throughout the sports world.
By: Michael Hanley
San Diego Padres General Manager Josh Bynes had some comments to the media on the decision to select Manizel with the 837th pick in the draft (via ESPN):
"It was kind of, 'Why not,'" Padres general manager Josh Byrnes said Saturday before the Padres hosted the visiting Washington Nationals.
In May 2013, Manziel visited the Padres when he was in San Diego to work with a quarterbacks coach.
"He certainly loves baseball," Byrnes said. "We kind of talked about it at that time, 'Do you want us to draft you?' He said, 'Yeah, absolutely.'"
Why in the 28th round?
"We really liked our 27th-rounder," Byrnes said.
Johnny Manziel does have a limited background in the sport of baseball. He did play baseball as well as football at Tivy High School in Kerrville, Texas. Also he was listed as a shortstop by Texas A&M but he never stepped foot on the baseball diamond for the Aggies as he focused on another sport he would have immense success in: football. Manziel actually still was active about pursuing baseball at A&M. Before his freshman campaign started, he asked the Texas A&M coaching staff if he could join the Aggies baseball team. He eventually won the starting quarterback job for the football program and as they say, the rest was history.
Johnny Manziel does have a limited background in the sport of baseball. He did play baseball as well as football at Tivy High School in Kerrville, Texas. Also he was listed as a shortstop by Texas A&M but he never stepped foot on the baseball diamond for the Aggies as he focused on another sport he would have immense success in: football. Manziel actually still was active about pursuing baseball at A&M. Before his freshman campaign started, he asked the Texas A&M coaching staff if he could join the Aggies baseball team. He eventually won the starting quarterback job for the football program and as they say, the rest was history.
Also in that May 2013 trip he made to San Diego, Manziel also showed off his football skills with Padres outfielder Mark Kotsay. After he took batting practice with the Padres at Petco Park, he then tossed out a football-style first pitch, as he dropped back, scrambled to the side of the mound and floated a bootleg pass to Kotsay who made the grab. From that moment, no way the Padres were going to let anyone else in the major leagues make a run at Johnny Football if they could help it.
Manziel being a baseball player would be a fascinating and entertaining venture to see but maybe in another lifetime. He has physical and natural talent to be a very competitive and solid baseball player if he dedicated his full time to the sport. With the strong arm of his, its easy to envision him turning many double plays and making sparking dives for balls and robbing players of hits
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Its a something that sports fans will be able to talk about and dream about for years to come as Manziel makes his way through his NFL career with the Browns. .
