Rippee says Johnny Manziel was just as good of a baseball player as he was on the gridiron

During his 24 years coaching baseball at Kerrville Tivy, Steve Rippee said there were a lot of talented players that came through the system, and one of those was Johnny Manziel.

Manziel, who won the Heisman Trophy as the best college football player in the country while at Texas A&M, played baseball all four years at Tivy.

“I felt he was just as good of a baseball player, and he could have played baseball at the Division I level if he wanted, but his passion was for football,” Rippee said.

Rippee said Manziel was quite an athlete and watched him stand under a basketball rim, vertical jump and dunk the ball without any kind of running start.

Rippee’s best Manziel story came when Johnny was a freshman. He moved him up from the JV midway through the season and started him in right field.

“We were playing Lake Travis, and they had this big left hander who was throwing 92 to 93 miles per hour,” Rippee said. “Johnny was hitting in the No. 9 spot and his first time up he ripped a double to left-center field. The next time up he ripped a double to right-center field and the third time up they walked him. They intentionally walked the No. 9 batter in our line up.”