The Cut That Made a Thousand Hits

The Cut

Jeff McNeil missed the cut at the 2009 U.S. Junior Amateur, paired near future stars like Jordan Spieth. No golf scholarship offers followed — colleges had filled their spots. Within three weeks he had pivoted to baseball through summer travel ball, despite having played almost no high school baseball to that point. That turn landed him at Long Beach State, then in the 12th round of the 2013 draft, and on August 9, 2026, at 1,000 major-league hits.

The Wait

The debut was neither easy nor early. He was 26 when the Mets called him up from Triple-A Las Vegas in July 2018 — a long morning flight straight to Citi Field, where he singled on the first pitch he saw. The years before had been a medical file: dual sports hernias, a torn hip labrum, a torn quad. Eight seasons in New York produced two All-Star selections and a Silver Slugger in 2022. This year, his ninth in the majors, he is with the Athletics.

The Net

They call him the Flying Squirrel for the acrobatic diving catches and defensive hustle, especially in the outfield. In 2019 at Guaranteed Rate Field he ran a foul fly down the line, leaped into the protective netting, held on, and used the mesh to bounce back onto the field. He called it pure instinct. He still plays golf at scratch or better and has credited the swing mechanics from one sport for helping the other. He is 34 years old, playing second base for the Athletics, with 1,007 hits and counting.

Reporting: Golf.com, MLB.com, Mets Insider, Long Beach State Athletics, Wikipedia. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.