We can all agree Jim Harbaugh is a great coach. The Stanford Cardinal, San Francisco 49ers and Michigan Wolverines have and had all improved greatly with him at the helm.
So what about the Detroit Tigers?
Harbaugh is bringing his Michigan squad to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida during spring break to practice in the warm weather (and entice Southern recruits), and according to The Detroit News the coach plans to stop by the Tigers-Pirates game and coach an inning or two at first base for the Wolverines’ hometown team.
But there’s more. Apparently Pirates manager Clint Hurdle is a Michigan fan and wants a piece of Harbaugh himself, so the coach might switch sides and coach an inning for Pittsburgh.
This is a pretty funny schtick (though a few notches below Will Ferrell’s multi-team adventure of 2015), as long as you’re not a Tigers rookie who hits a ball in the gap and doesn’t know whether to go to second base or is at first while Harbaugh is coaching and needs some help getting bag to the bag ahead of a pickoff throw. Then again, given Harbaugh’s success at every stop of his coaching odyssey, he could very well be the best first base coach in the game.
In fact, Harbaugh is no stranger to baseball. A year ago he had a coaching assignment even more extensive than the one he’ll embark on in Bradenton, and apparently he always dreamed of being a shortstop, not a quarterback. Via the Detroit News:
Last March, Harbaugh coached first base for the Oakland A’s from the third inning until the end of the spring training game.
“I wanted to be a baseball player,” Harbaugh said during a news conference last summer before throwing out the first pitch at Comerica. “I really wanted to be a Major League shortstop or a pitcher or a catcher. Be a big leaguer.”
