Blue Bloods actor Tom Selleck is quite famously a big fan of Major League Baseball. Born in Detroit, one of his most famous roles had a link to the hometown team, the Tigers.
Fans of the ’80s hit series Magnum P.I. will recall that Selleck had three main traits associated with his character, Thomas Magnum.
Magnum was, as the show title alludes, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. Selleck made the role easily recognizable due to his signature mustache, Hawaiian shirts, and Detroit Tigers baseball cap.
Did you know, though, that Selleck once played spring ball with those same Tigers?
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Selleck Playing MLB Baseball
While Magnum, P.I. was his breakout role, Selleck went on to become a major player in Hollywood, to say the least.
So what led to him playing spring ball for the Detroit Tigers during the heart of his acting years in 1991?
Selleck, you see, was preparing for his role in the 1992 film Mr. Baseball.
In the film, Selleck plays aging ballplayer Jack Elliot, who is traded to the Chunichi Dragons of the Japanese Central League. He must then navigate cultural differences and expectations while trying to lead his team to victory, all with humorous results.
Selleck contacted the Tigers to request participation in their practices to get a better feel for the role of a baseball player. He ended up taking batting practice for three weeks.
Then, during a spring training game, manager Sparky Anderson even called on him to pinch hit. For those wondering, as the above clip only shows part of the at-bat, Selleck managed to foul off 3 pitches from Cincinnati Reds pitcher Tim Layana. But he would eventually strike out.
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Hits A Home Run
While that spring training at-bat wasn’t ultimately successful for Selleck, he did have another impressive moment involving baseball.
In 1986, Selleck hit a batting practice home run while working out with that same team he loved since childhood.
Selleck was, at one point, even a minority owner of the Detroit Tigers.
While Mr. Baseball wasn’t a big success for Selleck, the film is still actually used today as a training resource by foreign professional baseball players who join a Japanese team.
It’s also a decently acceptable watch.
Selleck has seen a ton of success in both the movies and television over the years. He starred in Three Men and a Baby, which was the highest-grossing film of 1987.
He also portrays a police commissioner who is part of a multigenerational family of officers in the drama Blue Bloods, which debuted on CBS in 2010.
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