With all the excitement of the Texas Tech Red Raider basketball team taking on Virginia Monday night with the National Championship on the line, a former Red Raider was making his return to the baseball diamond after spending most of his career on the football field.

Bradley Marquez was selected in the 16th round of the 2011 Major League Draft and arranged a two-sport deal which allowed him to attend Texas Tech to play football while playing baseball for the Kingsport Mets in the spring. Marquez forfeited $250,000 of his $325,000 signing bonus by not choosing to play baseball full-time by September 15, 2013.

Marquez would go on to have a successful career at Texas Tech and then sign as an undrafted free agent in 2015 with the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams, then in 2017, he was signed to the Detroit Lions until he was waived in September of 2018.

Marquez is still technically a baseball player in the New York Mets organization and seems to be kicking the tires on his baseball career. In his first game back for the Mets Class-A Columbia Fireflies, Marquez got the start in left field and finished 1-4 in the Fireflies victory over the Rome Braves 7-4.

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