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Seasons collide for MLB dads, college football sons
- Updated: September 16, 2016
Rangers bench coach Steve Buechele knows a little something about big-time college football. After all, he roomed with future NFL Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway at Stanford.
It’s not a stretch, however, to suggest that Buechele’s greatest gridiron-relayed thrill occurred on Sept. 4, when his son Shane, a true freshman, started at quarterback for Texas in front of a jam-packed Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium crowd and a national television audience and helped the Longhorns upset Notre Dame.
And get this: He wasn’t the only former Major Leaguer at the game. Torii Hunter, whose son Torii Jr. is a wide receiver for the Fighting Irish, was also in attendance.
Baseball has a well-documented history of sons following their dads to the big leagues. There have been over 200 such combos, including Ken Griffey Sr. and Junior, Bobby and Barry Bonds, Yogi and Dale Berra, Felipe and Moises Alou and Sandy Alomar Sr. and Sandy Jr. and Roberto. There have even been a handful of three-generation families: The Bells, the Boones, the Colemans, the Hairstons.
Baseball sons who go on to play college football are rarer, but the current list is pretty impressive. And it can be pretty exciting for the fathers; Rangers manager Jeff Banister insisted that Buechele skip the game at Globe Life Park in Arlington so he could attend.
“It was an absolutely incredible experience,” Buechele said. “To be able to share that day with my wife and my other children, friends from Texas and friends from California who flew in; to take in the pregame and the college atmosphere. It was overwhelming. It was just an absolutely awesome experience.”
Buechele never discouraged his son from playing football.
“It’s what he loves to do. I’ve never pushed any of my kids toward anything,” he said. “It’s what they want to do. [Shane] loves baseball — still does to this day. But football is his passion. So I don’t mind it one bit. I support him in whatever he does.”
The 6-foot-1, 191-pounder became the first freshman to start the season opener at quarterback for the Longhorns since Bobby Layne in 1944 and threw for a pair of touchdowns. After two games he’s 38-for-53 (71.7 percent) with 6 TDs and one INT. The Longhorns’ next game is Saturday night at Cal.
Hunter Jr. caught four passes for 37 yards and a touchdown before being knocked out of the game with a concussion. The 6-foot, 195-pound senior had 28 catches for 363 yards and two touchdowns last season. The Irish host Michigan State on Saturday.
Buechele and Hunter didn’t see each …
