An errant throw ended what could have been a promising baseball career.
We know Billy Bob Thornton as an Oscar-winning writer and actor. However, Thornton was a solid baseball player, too, and he had visions of playing in the major leagues.
Thornton grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and came to love the game of baseball at an early age. He was an avid Cardinals fan and played high school ball, too, a crafty right-handed pitcher with an excellent fastball and a nasty slider.
He was good enough to get a tryout with the Kansas City Royals, and not long into the tryout, Thornton was called to the mount. It was his opportunity to show what he could do. What happened next is very different from what he expected. An infielder threw a ball that accidentally struck Thornton and shattered his collarbone.
One play and his major league dreams were vanquished. His baseball career was over.
With baseball now out of the picture, Thornton became a great actor. He has even done a few sports movies, with the redux of Bad News Bears (2005) and Friday Night Lights (2004) perhaps the most notable.
Billy Bob Thornton could have been a major leaguer. He became a major actor instead.
I think Billy Bob Thornton is a great actor. However, I had no clue about the baseball side of him. What a very interesting article. Great job Matthew Paris.
BS! No way he was good enough to get a try-out with the Royals. As a college player (my stats & proof are all on the internet) I have been flooded like many ex-college/pro players by people who fabricate their playing careers as an athlete. Billy Bob is full of BS! If he was a solid pitcher in high school, he would as a pro-potential, would have at least possibly gone on to college ball or would have been drafted!
PS-Researched this BBThornton supposed KC Royal Try-out with Royals archive administration rep. Was told if this try-out “happened at all”, BB Thornton would have had to sign a waiver with his insurance coverage in case of injury, during any KC Royal sanctioned tryout. There is no record of BB Thornton in any of the over 125 try-outs sanctioned by the KC Royals Organization going back to 1969! So BBThornton like many, fabricate their athletic careers. He possibly played in HS, but there is NO record of any baseball stats, articles on games he played in, etc on internet. These days you can type in anyone’s name using Google, with the sport they claimed they played, the school /HS/College, or professional team played for!! Nothing shows for BBThornton!! It’s a BS story by BBThornton! Love it! 🤣
‘As a pitcher, a righty, he excelled in high school. He never did get a shot with St. Louis, but the Kansas City Royals did invite him to a tryout. A half-hour into it, an infielder threw a ball that accidentally struck Thornton on the mound, shattering his collarbone, and that was that. “At the time I was devastated,” Thornton said on the phone a couple of days ago. “Who knows if I could have been any good? I still got my slider. I was throwing with (Cardinals pitcher) Jeff Suppan and he told me I threw him about seven major-league sliders.” From “It’s no act, he loves baseball,” Mike Downey, Chicago Tribune, August 2021
Vic – type in Billy Bob Thornton Kansas City Royals on Google. All things come up. He talked about it on The Rich Eisen Show. It’s also listed in many publications, Wikipedia, Chicago Tribune, Many other publications. They all say the same thing, he was a good high school player who was invited to a tryout, but that was as far as it went. He was never on the roster or line-up. Simple tryout and he got injured and that was it. He was trying to figure out what to do with his life after and moved to Los Angeles to be an actor in the mid 80s.
No official tryout from KC Royals archives for BBT or an invite. No teams in MLB have open tryouts. Thats ridiculous-even back in the 60’s.70’s. All I’m saying. A few of my family members had played professional ball(type in names-official stats are there). They are now professional scouts & coaches (Giants/Braves respectively). As an ex-D1 player baseball (type in my name) all my baseball activities are on Google. In the 70’s I’m telling you there were 0 MLB conducting open tryouts!! Insurance risks, etc. A few players from college had one on one workouts by a scout before the draft. That’s it.
There are Millions of decent HS players in America. Only 7.90% (NCAA Data) of HS players go on to college baseball (2.1%~D1 level) 0.5% to professional baseball! Lots of fabricated athletic careers out there $ I have heard them all. Some beauties! Most of these guys tell you athletic careers had ended in injuries. LMAO🤣
Heck even “Ogar” of Revenge of the Nerds Fame/Donald Gibb on Wikipedia page buffed and said he played basketball on a scholarship at New Mexico and THEN transferred to San Diego to play football! GTFOH! Hilarious-no Official record of that either!