Baseball players who gave acting a try

In terms of “baseball success” and “acting success,” nobody is on Connors’ level. He only saw 67 games of MLB action, but he played plenty in the minors and was also busy with being a professional basketball player at the same time. After he washed out in his early thirties, Connors turned to acting, where he became the star of the Western “The Rifleman,” which lasted for 170 episodes. He then starred in the shows “Arrest and Trial” and “Branded.” He played professional baseball and was a TV star. Not too shabby.

Russell is from the school of “played baseball but is mostly known as an actor.” As an actor, well, Russell needs no introduction. He was actually a child actor, but then got serious about baseball and was a minor leaguer to made it up to Double-A ball. Then, he suffered a torn rotator cuff, left affiliated baseball, and spent some time on the independent Portland Mavericks, owned by his father. The injury never healed enough for Russell to consider baseball seriously, so he returned to acting. It worked out.

Being a professional wrestler is partially about acting, and of course “Macho Man” Randy Savage was also in “Spider-Man.” Prior to that, though, Savage (real name Randy Poffo) was drafted by the Cardinals out of high school. He spent four years in the minors before turning to pro wrestling, where he became a legend.

McGraw played baseball in the 1800s, was a legendary manager with the New York Giants, made the Baseball Hall of Fame, and died in 1934. How did he end up with an acting career? Well, he was in three silent shorts in the 1910s. Granted, in “Breaking into the Big League” he played himself, but then he starred in “Detective Swift” and “Fighting Mad” in actual acting roles.

One of the most iconic athletes ever, and for many the best baseball player of all time, Ruth has 10 acting credits to his name. Usually, he played himself in shorts or movies like “Pride of the Yankees” about his teammate Lou Gehrig. However, in 1927 he starred in the silent film “Babe Comes Home,” where he plays…Babe Dugan. Sure, it was a baseball movie borrowing from Ruth’s life, but he was technically acting.

Robinson was a great player, but of course is best known for desegregating baseball by breaking the “color line.” There have been a few movies about Jackie, the first of which is “The Jackie Robinson Story” which came out in 1950. For that film, instead of casting an actor, Robinson played himself. It was received fairly well, even with a non-professional actor in the lead role.

“Seinfeld” was a dominant cultural force in the 1990s. So much so, when we think of baseball player’s acting, we immediately think of the two-part episode “The Boyfriend.” Hernandez plays himself across those two episodes. He’s…fine. He’s only slightly worse than Jerry, who is kind of a baseline-level actor. Hernandez was a really good player (and a bad announcer), but his turn on “Seinfeld” makes him one of the top-acting baseball players.

Boggs was a Hall of Fame player, and he’s got a solid collection of cameos to his name as well. He was one of the several baseball players in the iconic “Simpsons” episode “Homer at the Bat.” He was also on “Cheers,” as well as the TV show “Psych.” Then, there is the episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” that is dedicated to the gang trying to outdrink Boggs’ infamous (possibly apocryphal) flight in which he drank somewhere between 64 and 107 beers.

As a catcher, Uecker was…mediocre, hitting .200 in his MLB career. Of course, Uecker would be one of the first people to tell you his playing career was unremarkable. As a broadcaster, though, the longtime Brewers announcer is literally a Hall of Famer. Then, there’s his acting career. Famously, Uecker played the broadcaster in “Major League,” which was admittedly not a stretch. Well, he also had a role in the sitcom “Mr. Belvedere” for a few seasons as well.

Crystal’s acting career is a massive success, and he’s famously a diehard baseball fan. However, did you know that he actually played baseball as well? Crystal originally went to Marshall University out of high school because he had a baseball scholarship. Then, soon after his arrival, the program shut down. Crystal decided to head back to New York to be with his future wife, he began to study acting, and the rest is history. He did get to play in a spring training game with the Yankees…but he was 60, and it was a gimmick.

Convy is best remembered as a game show host, fronting such shows as “Tattletales” and “Super Password.” However, he had an eclectic, old-school career. He acted on Broadway, in movies, and on TV (he’s in the “Murder, She Wrote” pilot). Before all that, though, he was given a contract by the Philadelphia Phillies out of high school and spent a couple years in the minors. Oh, and he was in a vocal group called The Cheers that had a top-10 hit in 1955 as well. Like we said, an old-school career.

Spending his entire MLB career with the Los Angeles Dodgers (winning six Gold Gloves in the process), Hollywood was right there for Parker. In the 1970s, you could find him all over TV in small, one-off roles on the kind of shows that Leonardo DiCaprio ended up on in “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.” However, Parker didn’t really like acting, finding it a bad match for his personality, but in the 2000s he got into video game voiceover work.

Swisher had a solid baseball career, winning a World Series with the Yankees and being an All-Star once. He also married the actress JoAnna Garcia around the peak of his MLB career. Wouldn’t you know it, Swisher acted in two episodes of the sitcom “Better with You,” which starred his wife. He also appeared in one episode of “How I Met Your Mother” as well.

“Mr. October” won five World Series in his Hall of Fame career. He had his own baseball game, his own candy bar, and also had several acting outings as well. Most famously, he was in “The Naked Gun,” where he is hypnotized into attempting to assassinate the Queen of England. Reportedly, he was also in the running to play Geordi La Forge in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Another Yankee, because playing for baseball’s biggest team tends to bolster your Q rating. Jeter was the face of the franchise for years, and perhaps the face of MLB. The shortstop had a great baseball career, and he’s done some acting as well. He hosted “Saturday Night Live” and, yes, was on “Seinfeld.” Perhaps most memorably, though, he was in “The Other Guys.”