Marquette King wore a Raiders helmet to A’s batting practice

Raiders punter Marquette King became the latest football player to take the diamond for spring training, but he put his own spin on batting practice gear.

Tim Tebow and Russell Wilson are the most recent vintage, but football players with baseball in their past and thoughts of playing it at a high level is nothing new. Tebow is trying to pursue it professionally to the exclusion of football in the New York Mets’ organization, while Wilson took part in New York Yankees’ spring training this year.

Raiders punter Marquette King joined the Oakland A’s for spring training on Sunday, threw out the first pitch before a game. On Monday, he stepped into the batting cage to take some swings with his temporary teammates.

In terms of yardage average, King has become one of the better punters in the NFL over the last handful of years. He is also pretty lively on social media, with regular humor and occasional recruitment of free agents to join him with the Raiders.

So King clearly knew how to get some attention when he got into the batting cage at A’s spring training. After getting some pointers on Sunday from professional hitters, of course.

https://twitter.com/Athletics/status/972902674730397696

https://twitter.com/Athletics/status/972904929219133440

King kept up the good-natured trash talk toward Wilson prior to stepping into the cage Monday. Then he stepped in, didn’t seem to embarrass himself, and eventually had his own unique head gear.

https://twitter.com/Athletics/status/973267948126089216

Yep, King brought his Raiders helmet with him to Arizona and put it on in the batting cage. It’s really not all that different than batting helmets that have a full face guard.

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King was a wide receiver and a punter in high school, and he entered college at Fort Valley State as a wide receiver before making the full-time transition to punting. So he’s not the typical punter, if it wasn’t already apparent.