Ok, I’ll amend my statement to say that if he had focused on baseball almost exclusively from a young age he would have had a shot at being a true superstar. Or maybe he would have always been raw.
I would 100% agree with this statement.
I recall reading something about how Bo didn’t learn to “cut” the bases when he ran (meaning, angle his run so that he hit the bag on the inside corner while maintaining full speed). As a result, and despite his tremendous speed, he wasn’t as effective a base runner as some more polished players.
This is an example of what you were referring to. Because it was his “second” sport, Bo never achieved his full baseball potential.
And yet, he was an all-star.
Simply put, Bo Jackson was the greatest athlete I’ve ever seen.
(It’s also interesting to remember that he was originally drafted by the Tampa Bay Bucs. If the owner hadn’t upset him, he might have agreed to sign with the team. I wonder if he might have turned around the franchise, which was horrible back then).
Ok, I’ll amend my statement to say that if he had focused on baseball almost exclusively from a young age he would have had a shot at being a true superstar. Or maybe he would have always been raw.
Yeah, that’s what I meant. If he had focused on baseball instead of football, he would have been amazing.
To be fair, that ad ran 35 years ago, when Bo Diddley was still at least somewhat relevant to a broader audience. I was about 22 at that time, and I certainly knew Diddley. 
Buck O’Neil always talked about how he would love to sit at a baseball game, close his eyes, and just listen to the game on the field. He could tell how good a hitter was by the sound of the ball off the bat. There were three players who hit the ball harder and with more explosiveness than anyone else. Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson he’d heard while playing in the Negro Leagues and barnstorming. He’d also seen plenty of Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, but it wasn’t until Bo Jackson started playing did he get to hear that sound again.
As a Royals fan, I also saw plenty of Bo in his prime. He was just a spectacle to watch. I wasn’t old enough to really evaluate his route running or his base stealing efficiency - but the crowd showed up for him, and it always seemed he did something amazing each day.
Anecdotally, it was said that he was so athletic and powerful that he could jump straight up out of a waist-deep pool of water. I don’t know how real that is, but I bet Brian Bosworth wouldn’t argue its veracity.
Anecdotally, it was said that he was so athletic and powerful that he could jump straight up out of a waist-deep pool of water. I don’t know how real that is, but I bet Brian Bosworth wouldn’t argue its veracity.
Former UFC champion BJ Penn jumped straight out of a pool of water.
Very difficult to imagine a more physically gifted athlete. This is before all the modern training techniques so to see a guy built like DK Metcalf out there competing with guys who were strong or fast and rarely both was unique.
Unlike LeBron and some other comps he wasn’t physically elite because he was uncommonly big. And enough has been said about how hard it is to play both football and baseball at a all star level.
I saw a program, probably on an ESPN, that Bo’s injury or it’s degree was caused in part by how strong and tough he was. That a more normal/typical player wouldn’t have had the same injury.
Except that he was a running back, and their careers tend to have finite lifespans due to the pounding they take, as evidenced by his hip injury.
I got the impression (I didn’t live in an AL market at the time) from the news and highlight clips that he was a good, but likely not HoF good.
His claim to fame wasn’t that he was stellar at both sports, it’s that he was good enough to actually be good at both sports, and more than that in football, at the same time. Deion Sanders has since done essentially the same thing, but outside of Sanders and Jackson, no one else has done that since.
Lots were phenomenal athletes who excelled in one pro sport, and were considerably less successful in another (think Michael Jordan and his minor league baseball career, or Charlie Ward and his post-college NBA pivot).
Jim Thorpe of course is a great example as someone who excelled at Football and was good at Baseball.
Contemporary to Sanders was Brian Jordan, who was a defensive back for the Atlanta Falcons from 1989 through 1991 (and was playing in the same defensive backfield as Sanders). Jordan was the Falcons’ starting strong safety in the final two of those years, and was named as an alternate to the Pro Bowl in 1991. At that time, he was also an outfield prospect for the St. Louis Cardinals, and was playing in their minor league system.
After the 1991 football season, the Cardinals signed him to a new contract, which included a big signing bonus, but in which he agreed to play baseball exclusively, leading to his retirement from the NFL. Jordan debuted with the Cardinals in 1992, and was a starting outfielder for the better part of a decade, for several teams. He was in the top 10 for MVP voting in 1996, and was selected to the All-Star Game in 1999.
He wasn’t Hall of Fame caliber in either sport, but he was good enough to be a starter at the pro level in both sports, and was selected to both sports’ all-star games.
I just know that the Bo Jackson in Tecmo Super Bowl was insane. Other than Marcus Allen the rest of the Raiders squad was mediocre at best. If you want to blow the game up take the Raiders against the Cardinals. The score stops keeping track when you hit 99, and you will.
There’s no way Bo Jackson goes to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He just wasn’t a great player.
Even before he started getting hurt, Jackson was a neat player to watch but he was not actually helping the Royals win many ballgames. He also didn’t get a very early start to his career, so it’s unlikely he would have compiled huge cumulative stats. He didn’t usually get on base much, and despite his physical gifts he wasn’t an especially good outfielder.
He was similar in effect to Joe Carter, who despite playing three and a half times longer, being widely admired and being a World Series hero, got 3.8 percent of the vote in his only appearance on the ballot. Even if Bo doesn’t get hurt, that’s the kind of career he’d have had.
It’s difficult for me to believe he’d have ever gotten much better than he was. It’s not as if he wasn’t playing full time.
I was a fresh off the boat (okay plane) immigrant from a country where American cultural hegemony had barely a toehold, and this was immediate sensible and funny to me at the time.
I think his first career at bat is reflective of the excitement of watching Bo play.
He hits a long foul ball that’s nearly a home run (and gets a standing ovation for the effort). Then eventually beat out an infield hit (to the 2nd baseman!). All off a hall of fame pitcher (Steve Carlton). And in the midst of the at bat, the announcers spend their time giddily pointing out all the places he hit a ball during batting practice.
I don’t remember who it was that said this, was it Buck O’Neill who said there were only a very few hitters that when they hit the ball it made this impressive sounding CRACK! and Bo was one of those?
Yes. It was Buck.
Seems like a familiar story…
That’s it. Bo sure was strong. And it’s not just strength but also athleticism and hand-eye coordination, to hit the balls right on the nose.