\n”,”providerName”:”Twitter”,”providerUrl”:” He didn’t have the same success in baseball as he did in pro and college football, but he was a very good player with excellent speed and some power, too. He was an outstanding outfielder and had a respectable .263/.319/.392 line with 39 home runs and 186 stolen bases for four big league teams – the Yankees, Braves, Giants and Reds – from 1989-2001.\ n\n11. In October 1992, he played an afternoon NFL game for the Atlanta Falcons, then suited up for the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series the 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 both were with Double-A Albany-Colonie, then the 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 with 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” :”cs”} window.appId = ” /*–>*/
September 18, 2023
NEW YORK — What “Coach Prime” — Deion Sanders — is accomplishing at the University of Colorado comes as no surprise to Mets manager Buck Showalter.
Showalter has a special friendship with Sanders, who played for Showalter when both were with Double-A Albany-Colonie, then the Yankees’ affiliate, in 1989.
So, after Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Reds at Citi Field, Showalter stayed up to watch the Colorado vs. Colorado State, which didn’t end until 2:30 a.m. ET. Sanders led the Buffaloes to a 43-35 overtime victory to push his team’s record to 3-0 to open the season.
“Tell Deion he can’t do something. He’ll show you (he can),” Showalter said. “You know what people don’t understand is he has really good coordinators. Good coordinators don’t go where it won’t be good.
“I watched his coordinators. They do the little things like clock management. They got into a real emotional game (Saturday) with Colorado State. I loved Deion’s composure throughout the game. He didn’t panic. I’m proud of him.”
Showalter remembers Sanders as one of the best baseball players to ever hit the minor leagues. Sanders’ foot speed was second to none, according to Showalter. Most importantly, Sanders had a special relationship with his teammates.
“If we had an election in our team, he would be elected captain. He is very smart, very calculating. People don’t get it. He’s a good teammate,” Showalter said. “The players loved him because he humbled himself. He was different in baseball. He wasn’t in prime time baseball. It was Deion. He knew I had some kind of kinship with him. He listened.”
Showalter was the one who informed Sanders that he had been promoted to the big leagues with the Yankees. At first Sanders thought he was being promoted to Triple-A Columbus and asked to stay with Albany-Colonia. But Showalter repeated the message again. Sanders dropped the phone and let his girlfriend at the time hear the same message from the captain.
“We did a podcast last year and laughed about baseball memories,” Showalter said. “To this day, he’ll tell you that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing he’s ever done.” He was something. Watching him play was a lot of fun.”
Sanders didn’t have 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. He was an outstanding outfielder and had a respectable .263/.319/.392 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 afternoon NFL game for the Atlanta Falcons before suiting up for the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series that same day.
