“I hadn’t played baseball since high school, but I had a lot of friends who were getting drafted that year (2013) so I was really following along when all of a sudden I see ‘Jeff Driskel’ pop up,” he said. “I thought, ‘That’s weird. There’s another guy with my name.’”
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It got weirder when he saw the words after his name read “University of Florida,” the school where Driskel was playing quarterback.
It was the 29th round, and the pick belonged to the Boston Red Sox. It wasn't until a couple of days later when the Red Sox called Driskel to confirm he was the guy they picked.
“I asked them what they were doing and they said they thought it was worth a shot,” Driskel said. “I signed a contract with them, but I don’t ever plan on playing. I went down and met some of their people at Spring Training a few years ago. It’s been a lot of fun.”
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He still has a commemorative Red Sox jersey with his name on the back as a reminder of the experience.
“It’s just cool to say I got drafted,” Driskel said.
“Yeah, he’s mentioned it a few times,” quipped fellow quarterback Matt Barkley, who also was a two-sport star growing up.
But Barkley gave up baseball after eighth grade and never looked back … or looked for his name on the MLB draft tracker.
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“I started at quarterback as a freshman, and it was a really big football school, so that was it for baseball,” Barkley said of his days at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif.
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