The boy was a phenomenal 4-year-old, and he couldn’t wait to run around the Shea Stadium outfield and shag balls off the bats of his dad’s 1999 Mets teammates.
“I just remember him being so excited to go out in the yard every day,” Pat Mahomes Sr. told The Post. “I’d have to stop him so I could get in the car before I left because he was ready to leave. And he’d get there in the clubhouse, put on his uniform, and he’d be one of the first guys on the field. And of course I had to play catch and all that.”
Long before he was the best quarterback in the NFL, Littlepatrick Mahomes was The Natural.
“In his first practice he was playing shortstop, he threw the ball across the diamond and hit the first baseman right between the eyes, breaking his glass,” the elder Mahomes recalled, “so they gave him Said, ‘Start throwing the ball three quarters of the way.’ Became a big fan.
When Pat Mahomes asked the Mets’ equipment manager to make Littlepatrick a uniform, manager Bobby Valentine asked him to stay close to the boy and protect him. “Once he saw how he handled himself on the field, how he was tracking balls and how he was catching balls off the bats of big leaguers,” Pat Mahomes said, “he was a little Felt more comfortable.”
Pat Mahomes, although he was left off the roster for the 2000 Subway Series, was a fearless and reliable long reliever (8-0, 3.86 ERA) for Valentine in 1999. Little Patrick’s best friends: Mike Hampton, Al Leiter, Benny Agbiani, John Franco and Turk Wendell.
“He’d watch the first two innings of the game and then he’d go to the nursery where all the kids were and he’d be down there watching the game and playing the game and doing different things,” Pete Mahomes said. “And then if I went to a game, he’d come out and watch me pitch.”
The father’s shining moment of an 11-year MLB career came in knockout relief in the first inning of the NLCS Game 6 loss to the Braves. He threw four innings of one hit ball. “Ever since I was 4 years old I always said I was going to be a major league baseball player,” Pete Mahomes said, “and buy my grandma a house, so once I got to that point I It was able to be done.”
Before he debuted with the Twins at age 21, Pete Mahomes turned down a Division I offer as an all-state Texas high school quarterback. “I don’t like contact, so it was never an option for me,” he said.
Pete Mahomes moved to the Texas Rangers in 2001. “A-Rod will take him down after swatting balls and stuff, he’ll take him to the cages and take him to the tee and soft toss and then he’ll break it. Go down with him, film him. Take him in the room and show him what he’s doing wrong and show him what he’s doing, and he loves it,” Pete Mahomes said.
Littlepatrick could hit a 95 mph fastball and seemed destined for baseball. “I knew he had a chance because I know where I was at that time and I know he was much more advanced than I was at that time,” Pete Mahomes said.
But when the boy moved from safety to quarterback as a junior at Whitehouse (Texas) High School, baseball was deliberately driven.
The father was in a suite at Arrowhead Stadium for the AFC Championship Game against the Bengals when the hobbled Chiefs quarterback ignored a high ankle sprain and sprinted five yards and out of bounds for a first down. Before Joseph Osai pulled up a needless roughness 15 yards out. The penalty that set up the game-winning FG.
“His pain tolerance is a little higher than mine, that’s for sure,” Pete Mahomes said. “We’re just intense, man. Once you get in the game you want to do whatever it takes to try to win the game, no matter what it takes.”
Dad shed tears when Patrick won Super Bowl LIV with the 49ers and comforted him when they lost Super Bowl LV to Tom Brady and the Bucs.
“Tom is very special and he’s done things that I don’t think other people would have the opportunity to do,” Pat Mahomes said. “I don’t think there’s anybody that’s going to play in 10 Super Bowls and probably anybody that’s going to win seven … Patrick, if he stays on pace, God will, he doesn’t have a major injury, he’s going to do something. There it is. Crazy number.”
Littlepatrick, 27, will now savor the Super Bowl stage against the Eagles. “It’s like being in the clubhouse, being in the World Series with me, seeing 60,000 people in the stands, and performing in front of people,” Pete Mahomes said. “I don’t think the stage really gets too big for him.”
There is never. Probably never will.
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