Former Georgia DB Sanders Commings is giving baseball a shot

Sanders Commings showed a lot of promise in the NFL before the former Georgia Bulldogs defensive back had his career cut short due to injuries.

He played only two games with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013. However, Commings played baseball during high school in Augusta and was drafted in the 37th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks back in 2008. Now, after three years he has decided to give a shot at returning to the sport and seeing if he has what it takes to play Major League Baseball.

According to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, this is no Tim Tebow situation, Commings has the talent to potentially make this work:

“I’ve had guys come up to me and tell me, ‘I want to play baseball, help me out,’” said (former major leaguer) Jerry Hairston Jr., who first met Commings in 2013 at a different training facility in Arizona, when Commings was a fifth-round pick of the Chiefs.

“In the back of my mind, I’m like, ‘C’mon, brah. Baseball is a whole different animal.’ In baseball, you can’t just rely on your athletic ability to succeed. There is an art to it, especially with hitting.”

Commings, in Hairston’s view, has the gift.

“If he had chosen baseball, he would be in the major leagues right now,” Hairston said. “He’s a Starlin Marte type of talent. He’s that good.”

Commings turns 27 on March 8, and hopes to become an outfielder. He and Hairston are meeting with teams about minor league contracts, and Hairston says Commings is much more of a baseball player than Tebow. Which is really good to hear.

The pair have been training five days a week. If all goes well Commings could become that rare athlete to play in the major leagues in two sports.