Another baseball season has kicked off and there are a least a few celebrities who, at one time, hoped to be on a diamond instead of on the big or small screen.
Actor Kurt Russell’s father was a baseball player and Kurt had hoped to follow in his footsteps. Russell played second base for the Double-A minor league affiliate of the California Angels. He was leading the league in hitting with a .563 batting average before a collision with a player running to second base. Russell suffered a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder and had to retire from baseball in 1973. Russell fell back on his childhood career as an actor and has done well, starring in such films as Escape from New York and Backdraft in a career that has spanned almost 50 years.
Actor Chuck Connors, perhaps best known as “The Rifleman,” played for several minor league teams of the Brooklyn Dodgers before playing one game with the major league team. He then played 66 games as the first basemen of the Chicago Cubs. Before going the baseball route, Connors has joined the Boston Celtics basketball team and while playing baseball, he was drafted by the Chicago Bears football team, but never actually played for the team.
Back to country stars, Jim Reeves signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1944 and played three years with the team before an ankle injury forced him to quit. Roy Acuff, known as the King of Country Music, played semi-professional baseball and tried out for the Knoxville Smokies (a minor league team of what is now the San Francisco Giants). However, during the training camp, Acuff suffered sunstroke, which left him ill for years and even caused a nervous breakdown in 1930.
Singer George Thorogood played catcher for minor league teams during the ‘70s, which no doubt prepared him for his 50 states in 50 days tour. Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York, had a contract at one time with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Soap opera star John Berardino (Dr. Steve Hardy on “General Hospital” for 30 years) played major league baseball for the St. Louis Browns, the Cleveland Indians, and the Pittsburgh Pirates between 1939 and 1952.