Feeling a little inundated with Travis Kelce lately?

Well just be thankful Taylor Swift‘s boyfriend only plays football.

As The Athletic revealed Thursday, the Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro tight end has MLB-level talent on the diamond – and he’s even drawn comparisons to MVPs Aaron Judge and Josh Hamilton.

This might come as a surprise to anyone who saw Kelce spike a ceremonial first pitch at before a Guardians game in April, but not to those who remember him has a hard-hitting, cannon-armed right fielder at Cleveland Heights high in the early 2000s.

In fact, when Kelce was famously booted from the University of Cincinnati football for marijuana use in 2010, he briefly pursued a baseball career by playing summer ball in a collegiate wooden-bat league.

‘He was playing right field,’ Brian Cleary, the former University of Cincinnati baseball coach and now a Washington Nationals scout, told The Athletic. ‘As they take in-and-out [warmups] and as he’s playing pregame, it’s the best thrower of a baseball I’ve ever seen, to this day, in my life.’

Cleveland area native Travis Kelce throws out the first pitch before a Guardians game in April

A former little league star in Cleveland, Kelce has appeared at several Royals games in KC

Cleary was made aware of Kelce’s ability on the diamond following the Cleveland native’s failed drug test, which resulted in him losing his football scholarship with the Bearcats.

Top Storiesby Daily Mail00:0600:48Darts star Luke Littler reveals his dad’sinspiring role

Still hoping to follow in his brother Jason’s footsteps at UC, the younger Kelce took a job at a call center in Cincinnati in the summer of 2010 as he continued to take summer classes.

‘He wanted a Plan B,’ Fellow Cleveland Heights alum-turned-Braves scout Reggie Sanders told The Athletic. ‘He was like, ‘Bro, I don’t know about this football thing.’ He was not really thinking the football thing was going to work out.’

Kelce had been a three-sport star growing up in Cleveland Heights, where he was rumored to be touching 90mph as a pitcher in the eighth grade. And although he didn’t play baseball as a sophomore at the school, the team’s new coach did catch a glimpse of him on a summer league team, where the future Super Bowl winner allegedly hit a ball 400 feet.

‘I’m like, ‘What the f***?’ Cleveland Heights baseball coach Michael Dillon said.

The only record of Kelce’s collegiate wooden bat league stats are on his old Twitter page

Kelce’s dad Ed, who pushed him as a baseball player, is seen standing alongside Taylor Swift

At the urging of Kelce’s father, Ed, Sanders also made a point to check him out on the diamond.

‘He looked like Josh Hamilton,’ said Sanders, who has no relation to the former All-Star of the same name. ‘I saw him get a base hit. He got on first, stole second and then stole third way before the catcher could even get it out of his glove. It was something surreal.

‘I think that was his father’s dream, to see him in a major-league baseball uniform playing in the World Series,’ Sanders said.

Ultimately Dillon convinced him to return to baseball for his junior season, which resulted in Cleveland Plain Dealer Player of the Week honors for Kelce, who was recognized for going 14 for 22 with 12 runs scored, five doubles, two homers, four steals and a dozen RBIs.

As a senior, Kelce led the Cleveland area with a .588 batting average.

‘He would have been an Aaron Judge-type player,’ Dillon said.

He’s also remembered for his clowning and his competitiveness.

‘One of the two or three funniest guys I’ve coached in 20 years,’ said Michael Bricker, Kelce’s summer league coach.

‘He wants a laugh,’ high school friend Evan Knoblauch told The Athletic. ‘You tell Trav to do something, Trav would f***ing do it.’

Travis Kelce during the 2019 MLB All-Star ‘Cleveland vs The World’ Celebrity Softball Game

But when he gave up three crucial walks, a double, and a hit batsman during one brutal pitching performance, he snapped and threw his glove into the stands before storming into the dugout, where he attempted to flip a trash can.

‘I’m running in from left field, and I have an obscured view,’ Knoblauch said. ‘All I see is two legs sticking out of the dugout.’

Apparently, Kelce’s attempt to flip the trash can had go awry and had inadvertently hurt himself.

He tried to apologize for his behavior on the team buss after the loss, but teammates were allegedly laughing too hard to hear what he was saying.

Kelce appeared to be done with baseball after high school, until Bearcats football coach Butch Jones kicked him off the team and revoked his scholarship.

Brian Kelly, Cincinnati’s previous football coach, had shot down the idea of Kelce moonlighting as a baseball player, but without any gridiron obligations, Kelce was free to spend his summer working, taking classes, and playing whatever sport he wanted.

And after some discussions between Ed, Cleary and Dillon, Kelce joined Michael Bricker’s collegiate wooden bat league team, Champions Academy.

Kelce was compared to Josh Hamilton, who was drafted first overall by the Rays in 1999

While not sanctioned by the NCAA, collegiate wooden bat leagues are a way for college players to stay active over the summer months. And, as the name implies, the hitters have wooden bats as opposed to the more powerful metal bats that are used by NCAA teams but forbidden in the pros.

Kelce not only made the team but started hitting immediately.

‘Aftger (sic) game game (sic) 1 I’m batting .1000,’ he wrote on Twitter at the time.’gotta keep it going through the double header tomorrow.’

Kelce (left) gets hitting tips from Aaron Judge

Future posts referenced a 3-for-3 hitting performance, as well as a 2-for-4 game with two RBIs.

‘Had pro tools,’ Bricker said of Kelce. ‘He had a major-league arm, major-league speed. He fielded the ball well and hit for power. The only tool that would remain to be seen would be hitting for average. He could really square up a fastball and hit it a long way.’

The only problems for Kelce, as Bricker saw it, were his ability to hit breaking balls and his refusal to lay down a bunt.

‘He didn’t like the bunt sign,’ Bricker said. ‘He liked to shake that one off.’

Bricker even likened Kelce to Kirk Gibson – the 1988 World Series MVP, who also happened to be an All-American football player at Michigan State.

‘Kelce could have been another Kirk Gibson had he stayed at baseball,’ Bricker said. Kirk Gibson could have been a good receiver, tight-end type guy. I think they both chose good career paths.’

Ultimately, though, Kelce returned to football. His scholarship was reinstated, he improved his grades, and he moved from quarterback – where he played in high school – to tight end, where he later became a star.

Nowadays, Kelce is considered among the game’s greatest tight ends and the favorite target of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes – himself a former baseball star, who happens to be the son and namesake of a retired MLB relief pitcher.