KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — They were the sons of big league ballplayers, the lazy summer days of their youth spent listening to stories about baseball.
Their dads were both journeyman pitchers — maybe faced each other a time or two — who bounced from team to team as they tried to carve out long and productive careers, even as their kids grew up in east Texas, just a couple of hours apart.
Yet at some point, the paths of Patrick Mahomes and Bobby Witt Jr. diverged. One stepped off the infield and onto the football field, his first love giving way to his lifelong passion, and the other continued a remarkable trajectory toward baseball stardom.
Years later, their paths are crossing again. Mahomes is now the record-setting quarterback of the Chiefs, the leader of an unbeaten team chasing an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl title. And he is a part owner of the Royals, who are in their first AL Division Series in a decade thanks largely to an MVP-caliber season from Witt, their star shortstop.
They face the Yankees in the best-of-five series beginning Saturday night in New York.
“We talk quite a bit,” Mahomes told a small group of reporters this week. “I’ve texted him kind of throughout the season, and we’ve talked about slumps, and getting into the playoffs and everything like that. So I stay in touch, because even though we play different sports — I mean, we’re very similar in age as well. Younger than me, but similar in age. We grew up in the same type of area. And have the same type of upbring with him, his dad playing sports, too.”
They’ve formed the kind of bond that rarely exists for the sons of professional athletes: that of a shared background.
Pat Mahomes broke into the big leagues with Minnesota in 1991, the young right-hander getting drafted right out of Lindale High School. His son came along four years later, and pictures exist of a young Patrick Mahomes dressed in a Twins uniform, held by his father and his mother, Randi Martin, before a game at the Metrodome.
By that point, Bobby Witt already had a decade in the big leagues. He began his career with the Rangers in 1986 and proceeded to pitch for six other clubs before finishing his career with the Diamondbacks in 2001. Along the way, Bobby Witt Jr. was born — the only son to go with three daughters in a busy household in Colleyville, Texas.
That both ended up in Kansas City seems somehow serendipitous.
In the case of Mahomes, who starred in college at Texas Tech, he took over a franchise that was respectable and turned it into juggernaut. He won his first Super Bowl title in his second year as the starter, and with the Chiefs off to a 4-0 start heading into Monday night’s game against the Saints, he has them chasing a record third in a row.
Witt was drafted second overall by the Royals out of Colleyville Heritage High School, rocketed through the minor leagues and broke into the big leagues two years ago. He quickly became the face of a team that had fallen on hard times, losing 106 games a year ago, and helped to turn it around with his preternatural maturity and extraordinary ability.
Witt won the AL batting title this year as the Royals secured a wild-card spot in the playoffs. Then, he drove in both go-ahead runs as they beat the Orioles 1-0 and 2-1 in consecutive games this week to earn a date with the Yankees.
“This is what you dream about,” Witt said amid a sparkling wine celebration in Baltimore. “My 15-year-old self, I was dreaming, so now we’re here. Now we’ve got this opportunity right here, so we’ve got to make the most of it.”
That singular focus on winning? Sounds a lot like Mahomes after every game.
“He does have a slow heartbeat. He understands that the moment is not too big,” Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro said of his young superstar. “He’s plenty good. His talent is plenty good. His heart, his belief is plenty good.”
Almost sounds as if Quatraro is describing Mahomes, too.
The parallels hardly stop there. Both players have signed long-term deals with their teams, an unwavering commitment to Kansas City when they no doubt could demand more money elsewhere. For Mahomes, it was a 10-year, $450 million extension with the Chiefs in 2020. For Witt, it was an 11-year deal worth nearly $289 million signed earlier this year.
One of the smallest markets in professional sports with two of their games’ biggest stars.
“It’s great for the city,” Mahomes said with a smile. “I’ve heard all the stories about how awesome the environment was the last time the Royals were in the playoffs. And they’re going up against a great baseball team — a historic team. I’m excited for these guys. They are hungry. They’re playing some great baseball.”
AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno in Baltimore contributed to this report.