Shohei Ohtani is the number one talent in MLB and will be as long as his body does not fall apart – Last year he had 59 SB and 54 HRs – and he batted 310.  He had 9.1 WAR.  In 7 years he has maintained a 282 BA, and in seven years he has accumulated 43.8 WAR.  Plus what gets him on this list is that he was a two way players – a Pitcher (not last year) and a Hitter.  And his pitching stats are 38 – 19 with a 3.01 era.  Not the greatest pitcher, but ready to be number one on 2/3^rd of the teams.  So is he the best?

Well there is another guy that seems to have made a name for himself – even a candy bar.  Babe Ruth with 182.6 WAR – Shohei has a ways to go here.  714 HRs, and he had 123 SB – although that was not his forte’.  His career slugging was 690. Shohei had a monster year last year and had a 646 Slugging.  And that Ruth guy could pitch too – which he did in 10 years – he did not want to pitch more but he could have.  His record was 94 – 46 with a 2.28 era.  So beyond recency bias how does Shohei rank number one in this rare category?

And then there is a third entry into this list – a man who went 34 – 5 in one season, then had his arm go dead so he switched to the OF.  Smoky Joe Wood was not in the same category as Ruth and Ohtani, but he did gain 40.2 WAR.  117 – 57 2.03 are pretty dramatic numbers, and a 283/357/411 slash line is not a bad one.

That is the end of that list but as I tossed in bed with a brain that would not stop I then though there are other means to go two ways:

Bo Jackson – played 8 years of major league ball.  He only accumulated 8.3 WAR but for four years he was mister excitement, but the trouble was he was doubling up with professional football and those four seasons with the Raiders injured him too much for either sport.

Deion Sanders was another NFL/MLB cross over.   His 5.5 WAR over 9 years tells you he was not a star in MLB, but he was HOF in NFL and had one really exciting season in the majors.

Looking at cross overs I have to rate Jim Thorpe the best – Olympic Champion in multiple events, in six years in the majors his line was 252/286/362 – not exactly all-star.  But in the NFL he was named on the 1920s Hall of Fame team.  

One MLB/NBA cross over was Gene Conely who played for the Milwaukee Braves and the Boston Celtic.  91 – 96 career on the mound 3.82 era.  No one knew how to deal with such a tall pitcher in those days.  He played 6 years in the NBA, but took off six to concentrate on BB.  He averaged 5.9 points and 6.3 rebounds as a power forward. 

Danny Ainge played in Toronto three seasons and accumulated a -2.0 WAR – not a star.  But in over 1000 games in the NBA he averaged 11.6 points per game

But crossing over is not easy – ask Michael Jordan.

I tried looking at other sports and HOF John Smoltz also was a pro golfer and was in nine tournaments.

In Hockey Smoltz teammate Tom Glavine played Hockey before BB but not the NHL although he was drafted by the LA Kings.

Justin Morneau  only played in a single exhibition game, playing for the Portland Winter Hawks of the WHL in 1997.  And luckily for the Twins turned to BB. 

But there was actually one player who was both professional baseball and hockey - James Riley is the first player to ever play both professional baseball and professional hockey. He played 17 games in the NHL, 90 games in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and won the Stanley Cup with the Seattle Metropolitans in 1917. In addition, Riley played professional baseball for small parts of twelve seasons, from 1921 to 1932, with the St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators.

That is as far as I can go – football was always a two way sport up through Chuck Bednarik of the Eagles so now they are considering some two way players again, but it is not as dramatic as baseballs.  And naturally NFL has many kickers who have been pro soccer players. 

We know many of these athletes had skills that could have led to other sports, but it was always considered better to concentrate on one sport or one skill.  In baseball there might have been other pitcher/batters if the DH had existed.  Bullet Joe Bush hit .325 in 1921 and .326  - 1922 and 339 -1924. For his career a 253 average.   Wes Ferrell would have been a better example.  He was often a pinch hitter as well as batting in his own starts - His 38 career home runs are the all-time record for a pitcher (not named Ohtani). two seasons with an OPS better than .950, and two more above .800. He also won 193 games in a 15-year career.