On Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird’s incredibly brief college baseball career

The Hick From French Lick took up the sport on a dare — and raised eyebrows doing it.

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Fans of Hall of Fame Boston Celtics forward Larry Bird would probably not be too surprised to learn he played college baseball on a dare, yet the Hick From French Lick gave the sport the literal old college try while at Indiana University. A frequent visitor to the school’s athletic recovery facility, Bird would get ribbed by Indiana baseball head coach Bob Warn, and one day Bird had had enough of Warn’s jokes after the coach said to him that “real men play with balls this size” per SB Nation’s James Dator.

“I could do that. I could play baseball,” suggested the Terra Haute native — and Warn took him up on his offer, having him suit up for a non-conference game vs. Western Kentucky. “He plays the game (of baseball) just as he does basketball, with every ounce he has,” recounted Warn of Bird’s one-game college baseball career.

“He’s very intense,” added Warn. “He was remarking to one of the players before the game that he just wanted to do well; he didn’t want to let the team down.”

Going 1-of-2 with two RBIs with nine putouts from first base to his (very brief) record suggests that Larry Legend very well could have been a multi-sport athlete had he truly wanted to.

Not that Celtics fans would have wanted a second less of him than he had on their parquet, anyway.

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