We already detailed how Duke baseball head coach Chris Pollard was looking at David Cutcliffe's fotball program for pointers on how to revive the program. But maybe he should have been looking at the Duke basketball team instead.
Saturday night, Rodney Hood made his case for being the best baseball player on the 2013-14 Duke basketball team and it wasn't even close thanks to the lefty's cannon of an arm.
Hood was selected with the No. 23 overall pick in the 2014 draft by Utah Jazz. As part of the normal post-draft process, rookies are paraded around local events to get the fans used to the idea of seeing them suit up for their favorite team. Making appearances and throwing out the first pitch at minor and major league baseball games is a mainstay in the process—last week, Jabari Parker threw out the first pitch for the Milwaukee Bucks game.
However, when Hood and fellow Jazz selection Austrailian Dante Exum visited the Salt Lake Bees—the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim—the crowd got more than the usual decent-to-embarassing pitch from Hood.
The southpaw fired a definitive strike right across the plate much to the crowd's delight. Whether or not Hood could cut it with the Bees is yet to be seen. But should he decide to take a baseball sabbatical (see: Michael Jordan), Hood would seemingly fare a bit better than His Airness.
And just for fun, here's Parker's first pitch attempt. It does not take long to figure out who you'd want to take for your fantasy baseball team, should you ever have some sort of Duke basketball edition fantasy league.
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