Imagine you're a college baseball coach. The best hitter on your team also plays football. The football coach tells the player to concentrate on baseball and keeps him on a football scholarship. The baseball coach was Hal Baird. The football coach was Pat Dye. The player was Frank Thomas.
Thomas went on to an All-American baseball career at Auburn. He was a first round draft pick of the Chicago White Sox and became the first, and to date, only player from the Southeastern Conference inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Thomas' college coach, Hall of Famer Hal Baird, is featured in this Talking Tigers Podcast, brought to you by Alabama Public Health.
