Mets manager was worried Patrick Mahomes would 'get killed' shagging fly balls as a kid

The son of an MLB pitcher, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes spent some of his earliest years in baseball clubhouses.

Mahomes' father Pat, spent the 1999 and 2000 seasons with the New York Mets, and the future NFL MVP spent days running around the outfield at Shea Stadium shagging fly balls during batting practice at the ages of four and five.

Mahomes being so young and small was worrisome for then-Mets manager Bobby Valentine.

"I didn’t want anyone getting hurt out there," Valentine recently told the Mets' Jay Horwitz. "I wanted to be certain that no one would ever get injured. I understand that players were away from their families a great deal and this was one way for the kids and dads to bond.

"I remember thinking 'how is he not going to get killed out there?'" Valentine said. "I thought there was no way he would be able to hold his own but he proved me wrong. He was quite the athlete."

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Other players on those Mets teams also took note of the young Mahomes' prowess in the field.

"I remember yelling over to (teammate) Jay Payton to watch the kid," outfielder Benny Agbayani told Horwitz. "He had some arm. I am proud of his career. Who would have thought he would have turned into the best player in the NFL?"

Mahomes' father played 11 big-league seasons and helped the Mets reach the postseason in 1999 and 2000 – including a World Series trip.

"Baseball had been pretty much his whole life growing up, and he always played basketball, too," Pat Mahomes told USA TODAY Sports in 2018. "Those were his two sports. I was trying to keep him from playing football. But then his junior year in high school, he said he wanted to try this quarterback thing and see where it took him.

"Well, I’ve got to admit, he made the right choice."