Deion Sanders played nine seasons in the major leagues. Raymond Carlin III / Imagn Images
Could Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani lead to a renaissance of two-way players in baseball? Deion Sanders, who also used his athletic versatility to build a similarly unique career, would like to see it.
“I hope he opens the door for others. Because there’s many pitchers that can do both, but they’re never allowed to do so,” Sanders said. “They put them in a pocket and say, ‘You just need to do that.’”
Sanders was an NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1994 and won two Super Bowls, but he also hit 39 home runs during his career as a professional baseball player. He batted .263, hit 39 home runs and stole 186 bases in his MLB career, which spanned from 1989 to 1995, before he took time away from the sport and returned in 1997 and 2001 with the Cincinnati Reds. As a football player, Sanders also played cornerback and receiver, and he is the only person in history to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series. In 1992, he played in an NFL game before flying to join the Atlanta Braves for a National League Championship Series game that evening, though he didn’t participate in the game.
Sanders has since pivoted to coaching football, where he oversaw Travis Hunter, a two-way star who played receiver and cornerback, like Sanders. Hunter won the Heisman Trophy in 2024 as college football’s most outstanding player.
Ohtani hit three home runs and struck out 10 batters during six shutout innings for Los Angeles in the NLCS-clinching Game 4 on Friday, a performance some are calling the best in sports history. Sanders stopped short of that declaration, saying he can’t remember all of sports but was impressed by Ohtani’s output.
“Can they just hand him the MVP during the game?” Sanders asked. “He’s doing something that’s unfathomable.”
Oct 21, 2025
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