DETROIT -- Anthony Zettel picked up a baseball for the first time in eight or nine years earlier this week. He stepped in front of a radar gun, let the ball loose and did something somewhat astonishing.
The Detroit Lions defensive lineman, who has tackled dead trees, danced to "Thriller" on video and trained in mixed martial arts, added another feat of sporting excellence to his video library. He threw a baseball 94 miles per hour.
The second-year player performed the feat while at a Detroit-area batting cage as he took in a practice session before Saturday’s Sam Martin-Haloti Ngata charity softball game. The last time he pitched a baseball? His freshman year of high school, before he gave up the sport for track.
Zettel said he knew he could still throw the ball hard -- and thought he might be able to touch a little bit higher on the radar gun had he properly warmed up. It led to the question of whether he ever considered sticking with baseball instead of football.
He said not really -- mostly because of control.
“It’s fast, but I can’t control it like them," Zettel said. "It’s a whole different monster when those guys are throwing four pitches, you know?”
Zettel briefly considered trying to play baseball and football at Penn State, but chose instead to focus solely on football. That led him to being drafted by the Lions last year and turning into a rotational lineman for the franchise as a rookie.
One of his Lions teammates heard about his hard throwing and wondered if Zettel was in the right sport.
“What?” said Lions receiver Golden Tate, who played college baseball at Notre Dame. “He’s in the wrong sport then.”
Zettel said his second-best pitch was a curveball, but he isn’t sure what velocity he would have on it now or what type of hook it might have. After all, it’s been years since he’s thrown the pitch.
Ngata, who took Zettel to the batting cage this week, said he knew Zettel pitched, but he had no idea he could throw that hard.
“That guy, he’s a freak,” Ngata said. “He’s fun to be around. He’s good at everything, does everything well and it’s fun to have Zettel on the team.”