Russell Wilson to attend Texas Rangers spring training
Russell Wilson is not planning on taking a long vacation after the Super Bowl because the Seahawks quarterback is going back to spring training with the Texas Rangers.
You could forgive Russell Wilson if he wanted to take a couple months off after the Seahawks play in Super Bowl 49, but that’s not in the DNA of the youngest quarterback to start his second Super Bowl.
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Wilson will take some time off once the NFL season comes to a close after he leads his team against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, but not much because he’ll have to be ready to show up to spring training with the Texas Rangers for a second straight year.
“I love baseball, so any opportunity I would have to hang out with the guys and take some swings, I’ll take,” Wilson told The Boston Globe,
Wilson attended spring training with the Rangers last year after they selected him in the Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 Draft and let him take batting practice, field some grounders and speak to the team. They also sold a lot of his No. 3 jersey in the gift shop.
This is not just a publicity stunt to bring in an NFL superstar to try and drive up attention for the Rangers spring training because he does have some skills on the diamond. Wilson was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 41st round out of high school but elected to attend NC State to play football and baseball.
After playing for the Wolfpack baseball team from 2008-2010 he was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the fourth round of the 2010 MLB Draft and played 32 games for the Class A Short Season Tri-City Dust Devils, the Rockies minor league affiliate.
He played 61 games in 2011 with the Asheville Tourists, the Class A affiliate of the Rockies where he had three home runs, 15 RBIs, and a .228 batting average.
After that season he informed the Rockies he was going to pursue a career in the NFL, which looks like a pretty smart decision so far, and would not be reporting to spring training.
No, he’s not going to pursue a career in professional baseball and he won’t be at spring training for the duration like he’s trying to make the club.
But it gives him an opportunity to be around the guys and take some cuts in the cage and field some ground balls and most importantly it gives the Rangers a champion to learn from to see how he goes about his business and carries himself.
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