Rondo a baseball star? Ainge saw signs

Columnist Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe wrote of former UK point guard Rajon Rondo as one of two rising young sports stars in Boston. The other is Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury.

Ryan wondered if Rondo, starring for the Boston Celtics this NBA playoff season, and Ellsbury could excel at the other’s sport.

“Not only can I visualize it, I have seen it,” Celtics General Manager Danny Ainge told Ryan. “When we drafted (Rondo), we brought him into Boston and we had a company softball game. You cannot believe how far he hit the softball with those long arms and that great leverage. And in center field, he had a gun.

“There is no question he’d be a great center fielder, or a shortstop, for that matter. I mean, he had a cannon for an arm.”