Could RG3 Be a MLB Pitcher? Obviously, Right?

 

Yahoo – Because it’s the offsesason, plenty of football players are saying and doing rather silly things. This particular story falls on the lighthearted end of the spectrum … unless talk becomes reality. Washington QB Robert Griffin III has been doing his part to ingratiate himself with his fanbase, whether it’s driving a pace car in a Richmond NASCAR race, hanging with the Wizards’ John Wall, or catching a Washington Nationals game this past weekend. “With Bryce [Harper] and Gio [Gonzalez], and then John Wall, we’ve had a chance to hang out and kind of unite the whole city,” Griffin said in an in-game interview. “That’s our goal.” He added another tidbit: when asked how fast he could throw a baseball, Griffin replied, “I think with a few weeks of work, in preparation for that, I think I can throw 90.” All right, come on. Granted, neither you nor anyone you know is a professional athlete, but have you ever tried to throw a pitch at one of those carnival booths? The radar gun barely trips 50, and your arm is about ready to fall out of its socket. Could Griffin really throw a baseball 90 mph, or is this yet another case of ego trumping reality? Jeff Passan, Yahoo Sports baseball writer and author of a forthcoming book on pitching mechanics, said that Griffin very well could throw a ball 90 mph … but he’d be absolutely insane to try. “Football and baseball kinematics and kinetics are very different, even though they look the same to the naked eye,” Passan said. “While he’s probably right, he doesn’t need to risk another catastrophic injury on the right side of his body to fulfill what’s essentially a bar bet.”

 
Love him (I do) or hate him (you probably do), there’s no denying RG3 is an insane athlete. Pretty much coulda gone to the Olympics for track but chose to be a Pro Bowl QB instead. Solid choice. So this weekend he said he thinks he can throw a baseball 90 MPH. And people think he can’t? Why not? Chad Hutchinson is half the athlete of RG3 and was a MLB pitcher and NFL QB. Another white guy, Drew Henson, played both sports, and although he sucked at both, probably could have been a decent QB had he decided to roll with it from the get go. So 110% chance if RG3 quit football today and decided to be a pitcher/base stealing specialist, he could do it right? He’s 24 years old right now. And you don’t really need your knees to pitch (I think). I think by 27 he could be pitching regularly in the major leagues and you’d be an idiot to think otherwise. Maybe he’d be Armando Benítez and throwing the ball to the moon and giving up HRs when not striking guys out, but he’d make it.

 
PS: He’s a really good swimmer too right? Anyone who is a naturally great athlete is a naturally good swimmer. I have no real data to back this up, which is really good for any argument, but it just seems like a dude who runs in the 4.3 40s (two knees ago) should be able to jump into a pool and Phelps the fuck out of it. Maybe after one swim team lesson at the most.

PS: Swim team sucked. Hey, let’s show up to a freezing cold pool at 6 am and do something you’ll literally never have to do. Best part of swim team was the airheads and ring pops at the meets. That’s it.