The Montreal Expos made a handful of exceptions to try to convince Tom Brady to pick catcher over quarterback. They worked hard to recruit him to join their franchise, according to Monday Morning Quarterback,

The Expos had developed a significant interest in Brady, who was then a 17-year-old catcher and power hitter who could catch righty and bat lefty. After sending a scout to see Brady at Serra High School, the organization believed they’d identified a future All-Star.

They drafted him in the 18th round, because they knew his first love was football. However, they were willing to pay him more than the average 18th rounder. They sweetened the deal.

“In the neighborhood of bottom of the second (round), top of the third type money,” former Expos scout John Hughes told MMQB. “If we were going to offer him that type of money, we felt he was going to be a future big-leaguer.”

Why were they so sure?

“(Brady) had a high ceiling,” former Expos’ general manager Kevin Malone said. “He was a left-handed, power-hitting catcher who was cerebral. He had arm strength. He had everything that would warrant him being projected as a major league all-star. He had everything.”

Brady played two years of varsity baseball, during which he had a .311 batting average with eight home runs, 11 doubles, and 44 RBIs, according to press clippings found by MMQB. But beyond his stats, Brady had a pension for the strategic elements of the game. Unlike most high school catchers, Brady called the game.

Here’s how MMQB encapsulated Brady’s aptitude for the mental elements of baseball.

Jensen let his catchers call their own games—a luxury many college coaches don’t afford their players—and Brady embraced the challenge. He would meet with pitchers before games and discuss strategy: how they were going to set up hitters and attack their weaknesses. Brady had played against a lot of these hitters in leagues growing up and knew their tendencies. “He had a book in his mind on these guys,” says Jon Chapman, Serra’s ace pitcher that year. “If I tried to shake him off, he’d throw down the same darn sign. It was like, OK, we’ll go with it. Tommy knows what he’s doing.”

Of course, when Brady had an offer to play quarterback at Michigan, some members of the Expos organization realized they’d met their match. Despite Malone sitting down with Tom Brady Sr. on a few occasions and despite the extra money, Brady was almost definitely bound for Michigan.

One Expos outfielder, FP Santangelo, served as Brady’s chaperone for a visit with the team. Santangelo wasn’t a great salesmen for the Expos.

“We were telling him,” Santangelo said, “ ‘Why would you make $800 a month in the minor leagues when you can be the quarterback at the University of Michigan? You’re a good-looking guy, you can probably have a lot of fun off the field, too.’ … We told him: ‘Go play football at Michigan! Are you kidding me?’ ”