So here we are, in the midst of the twelfth season of “Dancing with the Stars” and it got me wondering…why haven’t there been any baseball players on the show?
Seriously, the “stars” have included Olympians and Playmates, supermodels and singers, wrestlers, actors, an astronaut, basketball and football players, a former Indy 500 winner and however you categorize “The Situation” and Steve-O.
Now, giving the taping and on air schedules (the Spring season starts in March, whereas the Autumn season begins in September)…an active baseball player COULDN’T take part.
By why not any former players?
Enter the “HacMan”.
Last week, former All-Star Jeffrey Leonard sat down with the ABC affiliate Sacramento and talked to them about his dancing skills. This from the News10 website:
Leonard lives in the Sacramento area and has been taking dance lessons at Fontaine Dance in Roseville. He said he was driven to dance by his wife about three years ago.
“At the beginning I was a little embarrassed and intimidated,” Leonard said. But with the encouragement of his ste-daughter as well, Leonard took the challenge and would like to be the next retired athlete to be featured on the ABC show.
“I’m basically the same guy. The same things that drove me to be a good baseball player, is driving me to be good at dance,” he said.
Something tells me that when the producers of “Dancing with the Stars” decide to extent an offer to a former ballplayer…it probably won’t be to the former San Francisco Giants slugger.
That said, if Leonard were to be on the show, I would vote for him every week to join fellow athletes Emmitt Smith, Apolo Anton Ohno, Helio Castroneves, Kristi Yamaguchi and Shawn Johnson in hopes that he’d end up hoisting the mirror ball trophy.
One. Flap. Down.
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