\n”,”providerName”:”Twitter”,”providerUrl”:” didn’t have quite the success in baseball that he had in pro and college football, but he was a very good player with excellent speed and some power , also. An outstanding outfielder, he had a respectable .263/.319/.392 slash line with 39 home runs and 186 stolen bases for four major league teams — the Yankees, Braves, Giants and Reds — from 1989-2001.\n\nThe 11 .October 1992, he played an NFL game for the Atlanta Falcons in the afternoon, then suited up for the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series that same day.”,”type”:”text”} ),”contentType”:”news”,” subHeadline”:null,”summary”:”NEW YORK – What \”Coach Prime\” – Deion Sanders – is accomplishing at the University of Colorado is no surprise to Mets manager Buck Showalter.\nShowalter has a special friendship with Sanders, who played for Showalter when they were both with Double-A Albany-Colonie, then a Yankees affiliate, in 1989.\nSo,”,”tagline({\”formatString\ “:\”none\”})”:null ,”tags”:({“__typename”:”InternalTag”,”slug”:”storytype-article”,”title”:”Article”,”type”:” article”},{“__typename”:”ContributorTag” ,”slug”:”bill-ladson”,”title”:”Bill Ladson”,”type”:”contributor”},{“__typename”:”TaxonomyTag”, “slug”:”mlb-life”,”title “:”MLB Life”,”type”:”taxonomy”},{“__typename”:”TeamTag”,”slug”:”teamid-121″,”title” :”New York Mets”,”team”:{ “__ref”:”Team:121″},”type”:”team”}),”type”:”story”,”thumbnail”:” Showalter impressed by Deion Sanders’ coaching”}},”Team:121″ :{“__typename”:”Team”,”id”:121},”Person:121668″:{“__typename”:”Person”,”id”:121668} “Team:147”:{“__typename”:” Team”,”id”:147}}} window.adobeAnalytics = {“reportingSuiteId”:”mlbglobal08,mlbcom08″,”linkInternalFilters”:”mlb”} window.globalState = {“tracking_title”:”Major League Baseball”,” lang”:”da”} window.appId = ” /*–>*/
18 September 2023
NEW YORK – What “Coach Prime” – Deion Sanders – is accomplishing at the University of Colorado is no surprise to Mets manager Buck Showalter.
Showalter has a special friendship with Sanders, who played for Showalter when they were both with Double-A Albany-Colonie, then a Yankees affiliate, in 1989.
So after Saturday night’s 3-2 loss to the Reds at Citi Field, Showalter stayed up to watch the Colorado vs. Colorado State football game, which didn’t end until close to 2:30 a.m. ET. Sanders guided the Buffaloes to a 43-35 overtime victory to move his team’s record to 3-0 to start the season.
“Tell Deion he can’t do anything. He’s going to show you (he can),” Showalter said. “You know what people don’t get is he’s got really good coordinators. Good coordinators don’t go away , where it will not be good.
“I’ve been watching his coordinators. They do little things like clock management. They came into a really emotional game (Saturday) with Colorado State. I loved Deion’s composure throughout the game. He didn’t panic. I’m proud of Hi m.”
Showalter remembers the baseball player Sanders and called him one of the best he managed in the minor leagues. According to Showalter, Sanders’ foot speed was second to none. Most importantly, Sanders had a special relationship with his teammates.
“If we had a choice in our team, he would have been chosen as captain. He is very clever, very calculating. People don’t get it. He’s a great teammate,” Showalter said. “The players loved him because he humbled himself. He was different in baseball. He wasn’t ‘Prime Time’ in baseball. He was Deion. He knew I had a certain kinship with him. He listened.”
Showalter was the one who informed Sanders that he had been promoted to the major leagues with the Yankees. At first, Sanders thought he was being promoted to Triple-A Columbus and asked to stay with Albany-Colonie. But Showalter repeated the news again. Sanders dropped the phone and had his then-boyfriend hear the same news from the skipper.
“We did a podcast last year and we were laughing about the baseball memories,” Showalter said. “He’ll tell you to this day that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing he’s ever done. He was something. It was a lot of fun watching him play.”
Sanders didn’t have quite the success in baseball that he had in pro and college football, but he was also a very good player with excellent speed and some power. An outstanding outfielder, he had a respectable .263/.319/.392 slash line with 39 home runs and 186 stolen bases for four major league teams – the Yankees, Braves, Giants and Reds – from 1989-2001.
On October 11, 1992, he played an NFL game for the Atlanta Falcons in the afternoon and then suited up for the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series that same day.
