Five years ago, Purdue's Zach Edey chose basketball, but what if he hadn't?

WEST LAFAYETTE − One hundred and fifty kids arrived for a rookie ball tryout, the first level of competitive recreational baseball in the Canadian province of Ontario.

Jeff Wolburgh, coach of the North Toronto team had the unenviable task of choosing 12 players from that field of 150 kids.

"I saw one kid and he was a foot taller than all the other kids, so I said, why don't I start with that kid," Wolburgh recalls.

Zach Edey was that kid and he wasn't there for a baseball tryout.

At least Edey didn't think he was.

"My parents brought me to a random field one day and I just thought we were having a picnic or something," Edey said. "All the sudden, it was, there's a baseball tryout over there. You should go over there."

Edey didn't take to baseball, but Wolburgh, looking at the kid's oversized 10-year-old frame, couldn't let Edey walk away without first doing his sales pitch.

So Wolburgh bought Edey a baseball uniform, complete with his name on the back of a jersey.

"He ended up being on my team for five years," Wolburgh said.

Can you imagine ...

By now, the story has been recited ad nauseum.

Followers of Purdue's men's basketball program, even casual college basketball fans, know Edey played baseball and hockey as a child. It's brought up on nearly every broadcast when the Boilermakers are on TV.

The intrigue is what Edey became in another sport, the likely consensus National Player of the year for college basketball as a 20-year-old junior center. If Edey was just another guy on a roster, no one would delve deep into his background.

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That Edey played baseball is typically the extent of the mention on television, aside from the occasional "Can you imagine ..."

Instead of imagining, let's go straight to a reliable source.

Here's the truth about Zach Edey the baseball player.

"When he pitched, he was so intimidating on the mound, so tall. This is before we played on MLB-sized diamonds," said Sam Brown, a former baseball teammate of Edey's who is now a college star at University of Guelph in Ontario. "From a shorter mound, it was so intimidating stepping into the batter’s box. He was so much stronger and threw harder than anybody back then.

"When he was on the mound and threw strikes, it was a pretty easy game for us."

Edey played pitcher and first base.

And, can you imagine ...

There it is again.

And Brown to set the record straight so we don't have to.

Edey, while, yes, abnormally large even back then, was nimble at first base. His hockey skills gave Edey quick, strong legs and solid footwork.

He was an easy target to throw to and if you misfired across the diamond, Edey's coordination was good enough to pick the bad throw out of the dirt, a skill that would translate later in his basketball career with developing a soft touch around the rim.

As a pitcher, Edey threw over the top with a long stride off the mound.

Every pitch came with fastball velocity - like 80-plus miles per hour velocity - but at a downward angle like a sinker. Edey would deliver a strong, heavy ball and get right on top of hitters.

In the batter's box, a giant with an aluminum bat in his hand, can you imagine?

"From a very young age, he could drive the ball," said Eric Stickney, a baseball coach in the small Toronto community of Leaside, where Edey is from. "It would be fairly dangerous for pitchers at that age to be that close to him."

Why don't you play basketball?

For years, people would take one look at Edey and, noticing his monstrous size, ask what became a redundant question.

Why don't you play basketball?

Edey didn't want to be a stereotypical basketball player just because genetics made him larger than his peers.

So he relented for the longest time.

"He was resistant to it for sure. He was still serious about baseball at the time," said Zach's mother, Julia. "Everybody had said he should always play. We had some friends running a team and they talked to Zach about playing. We knew them from hockey. We said to meet with them.

"Even after the meeting, the dad called me up and said that Zach said no. I was not surprised. He is just resistant to it. He decided just for cross training for baseball he would go out to practice and get some exercise. He came home after that first practice and said, 'That was a lot of fun.' "

The deeper Edey got involved with basketball, the more he began to enjoy it.

You know how this story ends.

Basketball had been something Edey would play with friends in the driveway or in gym class. He never took it seriously. Not until midway through his 10th grade year.

Edey started playing basketball for the Northern Kings, one of the top AAU basketball programs in Canada.

"He still talked about how much he loved baseball," Brown said. "But he was talking to me and started talking about how much he loved basketball. He started to like it more and more."

Then came a unique opportunity, this one outside of Edey's comfort zone.

Come play basketball at IMG Academy, a sports-centered prep school in Bradenton, Florida.

"After that first half a year of playing basketball, I had caught some college offers because of my size," Edey said. "Minnesota and Western Kentucky were after me. I knew after that point I was going to do college in America. I am someone who got very homesick as a kid. I figured I might as well move to America and get rid of that homesickness as quick as possible to give me the best possible chance to adjust to the college game."

Edey put away his cleats and glove and never played baseball again.

What if?

Suppose Edey never went the basketball route.

"I would probably still be playing baseball," Edey said.

Still?

At 20 years old?

"He would have a Division I scholarship for sure," Wolburgh said.

By the time Edey left Wolburgh's North Toronto baseball club and began playing for Stickney's Leaside program, Edey, now 15 years old, had developed into one of the best baseball players for his age group in Canada, Wolburgh said.

Good enough to play baseball beyond college even, perhaps, though Edey isn't so sure about that.

"It was something I really wanted during my childhood. Something I dreamed about," Edey said. "I kind of outgrew the sport. My shoulder was kind of giving out a little bit. It wasn’t very realistic anymore."

Don't doubt what Edey is capable of though.

Mason Gillis is a captain for Purdue's basketball team. Before that, the Indiana native was a standout high school baseball player at New Castle.

"The different trajectory of the height changes a lot when it's coming that far downhill at a batter," Gillis said, imagining a 7-foot-4 pitcher. "I think he could have. He could have done anything he wanted to. He is an athlete. We've seen him consistently improve his entire time here at Purdue."

Perhaps Brown, who played alongside Edey for years, is the best reference, now being a standout infielder and right-handed pitcher in college.

"Playing in Ontario was a disadvantage for playing baseball because other places play year round," Brown said. "But just from his sheer size, someone would’ve taken a chance on him. In basketball, he started late. It’s easier to build him up and teach him the fundamentals.

"For baseball, he already had the fundamentals. If he kept developing, he would’ve been really scary as a pitcher."

Stickney, a baseball guy in a neighborhood that is far more hockey and baseball centric than it is basketball, is happy Edey ultimately caved and went the hoops route.

"The competition for being an MLB pitcher is absolutely insane," Stickney said. "I think he can be an NBA center. It's harder to say that about MLB. How many pitchers do you have in the minors who you don't know if they're ever going to make it? There's so many levels, too."

Basketball and beyond

Oddly enough, it was an Edey baseball highlight video that caught they eye of Purdue men's basketball coach Matt Painter.

Yes, Edey was large. Yes, Purdue has a history of developing 7-footers.

But this one looked different.

The way Edey moved and could bend his body when delivering a throw, guys who are 7-foot-4 don't have that range of motion.

Purdue was in the need for a center and had targeted Hunter Dickinson, a 7-foot-1 versatile big man from DeMatha Catholic High School in Maryland. Dickinson committed to Michigan, leaving Purdue scrambling for a Plan B.

Edey was supposed to be a 2021 recruit, but reclassified and graduated a year early. He was still pretty raw and inexperienced as far as basketball went, but, again, Purdue and those 7-footers are a match made in heaven.

The rest, as they say, is history.

"When he first got here, you could see it that he was going to be a player," said Purdue assistant coach Brandon Brantley, who works with Purdue's post players. "Now, did I think he was going to be like a National Player of the Year? I’d be lying if I told you yes. He’s been so focused and worked towards it. Since day one, he never let up. Whatever you ask him to do, he is going to do it.

"It’s cliché, but coaches all around America tell guys that when you work hard, anything is possible. He is a living testament to that."

Maybe Edey would've made a good run of it as a baseball player.

But he sure as hell has as a basketball player, making a habit of cutting down nets and reaping the rewards for a season where he's led the Boilermakers to a 29-5 record and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

He's become the most beloved athlete in West Lafayette, not only for his play, but his willingness to return to the court after games and sign autographs or shake hands and take selfies with fans until every one of them gets their individual moment with the budding superstar.

Edey also has become the most recognizable face when he returns home to Leaside each year.

"Every kid in Toronto that has grown up playing with or against Zach is cheering for him," Stickney said. "They’re watching him. We’re checking the box scores. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s Zach Edey jerseys or graffiti art, street art murals on some walls in a couple years."

Edey has never taken his newfound successes for granted, either.

"He has not changed at all personality wise. Always from a young age, being so big, everyone sort of gave him a lot of attention," said Brown, who visited Mackey Arena to see Edey play against Ohio State last month. "When he played baseball, he always was super humble. He was super down to Earth and such a nice guy. When he is on the court, or in competition, he is a different animal. He turns on a switch and is super locked in. He always loved to work hard and put in a lot of effort to be better and that’s what he is doing now."

A 7-foot-4 flame thrower whose size would put Randy Johnson, Major League Baseball's most notorious "tall" pitcher, to shame gives up the sport and finds another.

After just a year-and-a-half playing basketball, Edey shows up at one of the top college basketball programs in America. Two years later, he is the most dominant force seen in years and the runaway favorite for every player of the year award there is.

Can you imagine?

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: 5 years ago, Zach Edey chose basketball, but what if he hadn't?