MLB legend Pedro Martinez believes Expos would still be around if Tom Brady chose baseball over football
Baseball Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez wondered what would have happened if Tom Brady had chosen to pursue a career with the Montreal Expos instead of playing football at Michigan.
The Expos selected Brady, a catcher, in the 18th round of the 1995 NFL Draft.
He decided to go to Michigan to play football, later joined the New England Patriots and the rest is history.
Martinez, who appeared on "The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz" Friday to talk about New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick retiring, was asked about Brady's baseball career.
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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady throws out the first pitch before the start of a game on opening day at Fenway Park in Boston April 3, 2017. (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
"He chose football, and I was on that team," Martinez said on the show. "We drafted him, and he chose to go to football. But I can only imagine if we were to make Brady a pitcher, and he had that kind of hose that he had with the football and pitching and he was as good? Imagine that.
"I would be an Expo right now, and we wouldn’t have ever left Montreal."
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Martinez was asked if Brady could have engineered some perfect games or no-hitters as his battery mate.
"As smart as he is, I wouldn’t second-guess anything," Martinez said. "And the funny thing is, we were doing something at Fenway, and he was throwing out the first pitch. And I got to the batting cage, and I see Tom over there grabbing the bat. And I said, ‘Tom, you wanna hit some?’ And, he had pretty good pop, and he looked to me like he could hit too."
Pedro Martinez of the Montreal Expos pitches during a 1996 game. (Jeff Carlick/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Brady recently partnered with Topps to dream up the big what-if scenario. Former Expos stars and would-be teammates Vladimir Guerrero, Larry Walker and Pedro Martinez also make appearances in the accompanying ad.
"That guy just never let us lose," Walker said in the ad as he reminisced with Martinez and Guerrero in a bar called "Brady's Brasserie."
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The commercial also explores the notion that Brady's greatness could have stopped the Expos from leaving Montreal. Almost two decades ago, the Expos relocated to Washington, D.C., where the franchise became known as the Nationals.
Legendary Montreal Expos pitcher Pedro Martínez throws the first pitch before a game between the Detroit Tigers and the Toronto Blue Jays April 12, 2023, at Rogers Centre in Toronto. (Julian Avram/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The commercial attempts to balance Brady's baseball career by highlighting accomplishments, but also showing what would be a pair of disappointing defeats. The ad shows World Series losses to the San Francisco Giants, a team with the same nickname as the franchise Brady lost two Super Bowls against.
Fox News’ Chantz Martin contributed to this report.
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