Eagles Q&A: Avonte Maddox explains how baseball past helps

Each week during the 2023 season, we’re going through the Eagles media guide to find an interesting nugget.

The Eagles’ PR interns do a great job filling out these little oddities in the media guide and they serve as a good way to meet the players behind the helmets.

This week, we chatted with veteran defensive back Avonte Maddox, who says if he could play another sport and position he would play shortstop for the Detroit Tigers.

Me: I know you played baseball growing up. How good were you?

Maddox: Good enough, I think, I would say.

Me: Did you play shortstop?

Maddox: I played really everything. Shortstop, outfield, in the middle of the field really.

Me: OK. How would you describe your play?

Maddox: Like, batting or out in the field?

Me: Both.

Maddox: I wasn’t like a home run hitter. That’s probably why my baseball dreams failed. Because you need to be hitting home runs to basically get there. Other than that, I was more like a base stealer, I would steal a lot of bases. Small game.

Me: Were you batting leadoff?

Maddox: Yeah, batting leadoff. And in the field, I was really good with my glove, had a strong arm. When I played centerfield, I had speed, I could catch, close ground and things like that. And then at shortstop, closing ground as well. I feel like that would mostly be my game.

Me: Did you play all the way through high school?

Maddox: Yeah, I played all the way through. I played on like All-Star teams, traveled with teams. Played at a lot of places.

Me: If football wasn’t an option, could you have played in college?

Maddox: Oh yeah. Definitely.

Me: Were there schools looking at you?

Maddox: I mean, I could have played at Pitt. I was going to play my freshman year. We had ended up getting a new coach. My first coach said I could and then we got a new head coach so I was trying to reconfirm it. Because football was what my scholarship was for. You don’t really get them for baseball unless you hit home runs. So then right when I was about to play, I ended up dislocating my elbow.

Me: So you were still going to try to play freshman year?

Maddox: Nah, the next year. I was going to play my sophomore year but then I ended up dislocating my elbow. Then after that, I’m like, ‘I’m going to go out here because he said I could.’ And then I ended up playing in the preseason and dislocated my other one, so I gave up.

Me: Yeah, you don’t want to ruin it for football.

Maddox: Yeah and by that time it was already getting close to football so I said I give up.

Me: What did you miss about baseball?

Maddox: It’s just fun. It’s kind of like a boring sport to watch if you don’t really know about it. But just playing it is fun. I enjoyed taking infield or batting and things like that. You got your friends all on the team. It’s a slow game but it’s very challenging and fun. And it helps you. I feel like a lot of my skills from baseball I could carry over to football.

Me: Like what?

Maddox: Like moving lateral. At shortstop, you’ve got to be able to move quickly right, quickly left and in the slot you have to move quickly right, quickly left. Things like that. I feel like that will help you out. Hand-eye coordination when it comes to catching the ball. It’s all things like that, that can help you out.

Me: I always think about that. When kids specialize in one sport now, they miss out on that.

Maddox: Oh yeah, definitely. I feel like you do. Catching a fly ball in baseball is hard. You gotta be able to judge it, how high it is and how far it’s traveling. You gotta make sure you can get up underneath it. In football when they’re throwing a fade ball, they’re up and you’re turning to try to track it, it’s kind of just like baseball. Running and trying to track it. It helps you out a lot.

Me: You still watch baseball a lot?

Maddox: Yeah, I watch it here and there. Definitely more in the playoffs. But now I’ve really been focused on football.

Me: Yeah, you got a lot going on.

Maddox: (Laughs) Yeah, got a lot going on. It’s been pretty tough to catch a lot of games.

Me: Thanks, man. I appreciate it.

Maddox: Sure.

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