As his “My Life Is More Interesting Than Yours Tour 2015" continued this week, Jim Harbaugh added stops as an emergency first responder, Judge Judy super fan, Twitter super riser and, this morning, rap album critic.
This afternoon, the Michigan head coach added yet another accomplishment: baseball coach.
Harbaugh and Oakland A’s manager Bob Melvin have been friends dating back to even before the former’s time with the San Francisco 49ers and at Stanford. Melvin invited Harbaugh to spring practice in Arizona Saturday, an invitation that was accepted.
Awaiting Harbaugh on his arrival in Mesa was a locker with a No. 4 jersey, the coach’s number when he quarterbacked the Wolverines, as well as a name plate. With the A’s playing the Los Angeles Angels -- does it bother anyone else that the name of that MLB team translates to “the The Angels Angels?” --in Cactus League play today, Melvin asked his buddy to put that uniform to some on-diamond use.
Melvin's going to let Harbaugh coach first base for a few innings today.
— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) March 7, 2015
Bob Melvin signed a new coach- @CoachJim4UM Harbaugh played baseball at Paly- Melvin at Menlo-Atherton pic.twitter.com/umd0NzZXlp
— Dave Feldman (@Feldy) March 7, 2015
In addition to his current sport, Harbaugh played baseball at Palo Alto High School before signing with the football Wolverines. “Harbaugh said he was .400 hitter until he started following teachings of Charlie Lau,” the San Francisco Chronicle‘s John Shea tweeted. “He stopped hitting, turned to football.”
(Photo credit: MLB.com’s Jane Lee)
