LosGatosObserver.com

Wait, I thought Trent Edwards was a football player?

Many of us remember Trent Edwards hitting home runs as a Los Gatos Little Leaguer and Pony Leaguer. In those days, I also remember him dreaming of someday wearing a professional baseball uniform — a Los Angeles Dodgers jersey.

Edwards got the opportunity to don a professional baseball uniform Thursday, but it wasn’t Dodger blue, it was Toronto Blue Jays’ black.

The Buffalo Bills quarterback and teammate Lee Evans got a chance to take batting practice prior to the Blue Jays-Yankees game, and Edwards bombed two over the left-field wall in his 15 swings.

Both players were decked out in black Blue Jays uniforms with their football numbers, and they took part in various activities during their visit.

“To be honest with you, I am a little nervous,” said the former Los Gatos High School and Stanford football star before stepping into the cage. “The last time I played was in a slow-pitch softball game, and I struck out. Hopefully I can redeem myself today.”

Redeem himself he did. Edwards hit about the fourth pitch he saw off the base of the fence in left-center field, then ripped two into the seats.

“I was tired after 10 or 15 swings,” said Edwards. “I was a little surprised about that. But I was proud of the fact that I never swung and missed.”

Edwards later threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Blue Jays’ outfielder Vernon Wells. A former pitcher, Edwards quickly discovered that the mechanics in throwing a football do not mirror that of tossing a baseball. He threw one well out of the strike zone, with Wells having to make a nice back-handed stop to prevent it from going to the screen.

“I was debating throwing off the mound or throwing off the grass, and I elected to throw off the mound,” Edwards later told ESPN’s Mike Hill. “It was pretty ugly to tell you the truth. Throwing a baseball is a lot different than throwing a football, that’s for sure.”

Longtime Los Gatos baseball fans will remember the last time Edwards stepped atop a baseball mound. It was in the championship game of the 1997 Pony Sectional tournament at Fisher Middle School.

All Edwards did that day was strike out 18 in seven innings, yielding just one hit. That one hit, however, was a solo home run and the Los Gatos Pony League All-Stars ended up losing 1-0 to Santa Clara.

And all Santa Clara did after that was go on and advance to the Pony League World Series where it lost to eventual champion Tai-Tung, Taiwan.

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