May 1, 2001: Deion Sanders’ big-league return marks a career night in Reds’ win over Dodgers

“Football is my wife, and baseball is my mistress.” – Deion Sanders1

Deion Sanders, professionally hopping between two sports since 1989, declared himself born again in Cincinnati. He said divine intervention had helped him survive a 1997 suicide attempt, in which he purportedly drove his black Mercedes “65 or 70” miles an hour off a “40- … 30-foot” cliff without getting “a scratch on me or on the car.”2 “Cincinnati is the city where I came to know Jesus Christ,” he proclaimed, “the city where I was saved.”3

In 2001 the city gave Sanders’ baseball career new life. The Cincinnati Reds – for whom he had played outfield in 1994, ’95, and ’97, mostly during National Football League offseasons – offered him a minor-league deal and spring-training invite that February. Sanders, the Pro Football Hall of Fame shoo-in still under contract as a Washington Redskins cornerback, took Cincinnati’s offer and said, “I love the challenge.”4

There was hope that Sanders would meet the challenge without an injury, bruised ego, or custody fight. Gone were the right-knee pains that had interfered with his last big-league comeback attempt in 2000.5 And almost 10 years after Sanders’Atlanta Falcons football contract barred him from playing in the 1991 World Series, a clause in his Washington deal let him skip NFL training camp that summer – as long as he was on an MLB roster.6

Accounts and numbers heightened the optimism. In 19 games and 81 plate appearances with the Reds’ Triple-A Louisville affiliate, Sanders collected 34 hits, 12 runs, nine RBIs, four doubles, five triples, six stolen bases, a .689 slugging percentage, and an International League-leading .459 batting average. Minor-league teammates and coaches praised him as willing to “do anything for any guy on his team,” less flashy than the coat-and-shades gridiron personas of “Prime Time” and “Neon Deion,” and every bit as fast. 7 The 33-year-old worded it simply: “I’ve got the peace of God in my life … and I’m just hitting the ball where it’s pitched.”8

Scribes who had downplayed Sanders’ effort retracted their words by late April. Cincinnati Post columnist Bill Koch: “Deion Sanders, the born-again flash, has proven us all wrong.” Cincinnati Enquirer writer Tim Sullivan: “Waiter, how do you cook your crow here?”9

A call-up was afoot. On April 29 the Reds placed Ken Griffey Jr., nursing a torn hamstring while going 0-for-12 in 16 pinch-hitting appearances, on the disabled list. The move left room on the 25-man roster for Sanders. “It’s a lot easier now to disable Junior,” said Cincinnati general manager Jim Bowden, “when you have Deion Sanders to replace him.”10

On May 1 the ascension was complete. Before a night game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Reds manager Bob Boone assigned usual outfielder Dmitri Young to first base, allowing primary first baseman  Sean Casey to rest his bruised foot. This left room in left field for Sanders, who hadn’t played a regular-season major-league game in 1,364 days.

With his sign above his Cinergy Field locker freshly posted – “Delight thyself also in the LORD and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart”11 – Sanders pulled his red socks toward his knees and buttoned up his pinstriped vest for a Tuesday night crowd of 30,548.12

Cincinnati welcomed him back fast, loudly, and often. Before the top of the first inning, the rest of the Reds defense stayed in the dugout an extra few seconds, letting Sanders soak up applause as he jogged to his position. The cheers returned after the left fielder’s inning-ending catch. A third wave came in the bottom of the first, as the number-two hitter lined the first pitch he saw off Dodgers starter Éric Gagné; the liner went up the middle for a single.13 The returning Red was batting 1.000.

Reds starter Osvaldo Fernández second-inning troubles, including a double by Eric Karros and sacrifice fly by Ángel Peña, quieted the Cincinnati faithful14 ut not for long. Aaron Boone led off the bottom frame with a game-tying solo home run. A walk, stolen base, and balk put Rubén Rivera in scoring position. A single to right field by Pokey Reese put the Reds ahead, 2-1. And by taking a payoff pitch with two outs, Barry Larkin kept the inning alive for his longtime, on-deck friend.

Sanders bit. Like last time, he connected on the first pitch of his at-bat. This time it cleared the right-field wall. The lefty hitter’s first big-league homer since August 11, 1997, gave the Reds a 5-1 edge.

The masses, on their feet from the moment of contact, remained standing. They, including the 9,075 kids given free tickets as part of a Little League partnership, wanted a curtain call.15

Sanders gave them one. He removed his helmet and pointed toward the spectators and sky. Asked how it felt, he replied, “I wish my vocabulary was equipped enough to explain … the love, peace, and joy I have in this city.”16

The feelings stuck around. Sometime later, according to Dayton Daily News beat writer Hal McCoy, Sanders “stood in left field and felt the tears trickling down his cheeks.”17

The fifth inning brought Sanders home again. He bunted to Los Angeles reliever José Núñez, beat it out for a single, took second base on a bunt by Michael Tucker, stole third standing up, and scored on a single by Aaron Boone.

But down 6-1 on this night of Sanders’ comeback, the Dodgers staged their own. A sixth-inning single by Mark Grudzielanek, a double by Shawn Green, and a single by Karros scored two runs, knocking Fernández from the game. Against reliever Mark Wohlers, Los Angeles tied in the seventh – on a single by Gary Sheffield, a misplay of a groundball by Green, a single by Karros, and a three-run double down the right-field line by Dave Hansen.18

Sanders made his last plate appearance of the night count. His seventh-inning sacrifice pushed Larkin, who had singled, into scoring position. Two at-bats later, a liner to left by Young scored the 37-year-old team captain, reclaiming Cincinnati’s lead.

This time the home team stayed ahead. Submariner Scott Sullivan retired the side in the eighth. Closer Danny Graves tossed a perfect ninth. The Reds’ 7-6 victory – their sixth win in seven games – made them 15-10, tied for first in the National League Central Division. The Dodgers slipped to 15-11, just one game up in the NL West.19

Wohlers scored his first win of the season.20 Los Angeles reliever Matt Herges, who had allowed eventual winning runner Larkin on base in the seventh, took the loss for a 1-2 record. Graves earned his ninth of 32 saves that year.

Sanders told reporters after his 3-for-3, three-RBI show, “I feel like I earned my way back.”21

Figures in both clubhouses agreed.

“The night,” the Reds’ Young said, “definitely belonged to ‘Prime Time.’”22

“He’s a very incredible athlete,” said Dodgers manager Jim Tracy, raised in nearby Hamilton, Ohio. “The speed that he has … creates havoc for the opposition.”23

“God gave Deion something he left off my plate,” Reds skipper Boone said.24

Yet the reunion, and Cincinnati’s winning record, proved fleeting. Over his next 31 games, Sanders hit .139 with only 10 more hits, two more stolen bases, one more RBI, and no more home runs. By the end of June 14, the Reds had lost 29 of 39 games since May 1. Griffey’s June 15 return led the team to release Sanders a week later. (Cincinnati ended 2001 fifth in its division, at 66-96.)

The Toronto Blue Jays acquired Sanders on June 27, but only for a minor-league deal, which meant the MLB exemption in his NFL contract did not apply. With little shot of rejoining the majors by the start of Redskins training camp in July, he retired from baseball one final time.

Sanders played his last football game almost five years later.25 He entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011, his first year of eligibility.

But the diamond fantasies didn’t wane. Thankful as he was that “God gave me equilibrium to balance things in life simultaneously,” Sanders spoke in 2025 about work undone: “I still have baseball dreams … because it’s like it was incomplete.”26

Nonetheless, Sanders’ NFL and MLB totals portray a fuller two-sport career than most: 14 football seasons, 188 football games, 19 non-offensive touchdowns, 7,838 all-purpose yards, 512 tackles, two Super Bowl rings, eight Pro Bowls, nine baseball seasons, 641 baseball games, a .263 batting average, 558 hits, 39 home runs, 168 RBIs, and 186 stolen bases. Not to mention other feats: becoming the first player to suit up for an NFL and MLB game on the same day (October 11, 1992), the first to notch an MLB home run and NFL touchdown in the same week, and the first to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series.27

In 2023, Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz, an Atlanta Braves teammate from 1991 to 1994, described Sanders: “He’s the best athlete I’ve ever seen.”28

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mike Huber and copy-edited by Keith Thursby. Additional thanks to Gary Belleville, Kurt Blumenau, and John Fredland for their input.

Image credit: Deion Sanders, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for the box score and other material.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN200105010.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2001/B05010CIN2001.htm

Notes

1 Gabbi Shaw, “13 Professional Athletes Who Played More Than One Sport,” Business Insider, March 23, 2020, https://www.businessinsider.com/professional-athletes-who-played-multiple-sports-well.

2 “Sanders’ Close Call,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 28, 1998: D6; Deion Sanders with Jim Nelson Black, Power, Money & Sex: How Success Almost Ruined My Life (Nashville, TN: Word Publishing, 1998), 95.

3 Tom Archdeacon, “Sanders Ready for Prime Time,” Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, April 26, 2001: 1D.

4 Tim Sullivan, “The Right Time for Prime Time,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 28, 2001: D1.

5 The Reds signed Sanders to a minor-league contract on January 20, 2000. After undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee shortly before the season, Sanders batted .200 in 25 games for the Triple-A Louisville Riverbats before deciding to go home. In late May, after Cincinnati outfielder Alex Ochoa underwent an appendectomy, team general manager Jim Bowden offered Sanders a chance to join the major-league roster. Sanders declined, ending his 2000 comeback attempt. (Associated Press, “Deion’s Shift to DL Ends Reds Career,” Ironton (Ohio) Tribune, June 23, 2000: 8.)

6 In 1991 Sanders’ contract with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons only allowed him to play baseball through July 31. For the rest of the MLB season, he played in only five Braves games, mostly as a pinch-runner during the Falcons’ early October bye week. Between his sub-.200 batting average and an NFL agreement that barred him from Braves postseason play, Sanders received word in early October that he would not appear on Atlanta’s 25-man playoff roster. (I.J. Rosenberg, “Sanders Unlikely to be Activated for Playoff Roster,” Atlanta Journal, October 7, 1991: E6.)

Under changes to his NFL contract in 1992, Sanders still had to report to Falcons training camps, but he was allowed to rejoin the Braves for any MLB postseason contests. (Len Pasquarelli, “New Falcons Deal Awaits Sanders’s Approval,” Atlanta Constitution, September 10, 1992: G1.)

Details regarding Sanders’ Washington Redskins contract, signed in 2000, come from Johnathan Croyle, “Before Re-Energizing Colorado Football, Deion Sanders Brought ‘Primetime’ to Syracuse’s Baseball Team,” Syracuse Post-Herald online, September 29, 2023, https://www.syracuse.com/living/2023/09/before-re-energizing-colorado-football-deion-sanders-brought-primetime-to-syracuses-baseball-team.html.

7 Associated Press, “Deion Enjoying Minor-League Life,” Urbana (Ohio) Daily Citizen, April 27, 2001: B2.

8 Sullivan.

9 Sullivan; Bill Koch, “Sanders Deserves Call Up,” Cincinnati Post, April 30, 2001: 1C.

10 Associated Press, “Reds Plan to Activate Deion Sanders Today,” Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2001: D5.

11 Hal McCoy, “Sanders Loves Being in Cincy,” Dayton Daily News, May 3, 2001: 1D.

12 The night’s paid attendance figure, 21,473, does not include the younger spectators who received complimentary tickets. John Fay, “Deion Thrilled by Standing ‘O,’” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 2, 2001: D3.

13 Details on the applause come from Tony Jackson, “Deion Delivers Victory,” Cincinnati Post, May 2, 2001: 1C.

14 Pena was substituting for primary catcher Paul Lo Duca, who had recently strained his left oblique muscle. Los Angeles placed Lo Duca on the 15-day disabled list on May 2. (See “Strain Puts Lo Duca on 15-Day Disabled List,” Los Angeles Times, May 3, 2001: D9.)

Lo Duca returned to the Dodgers’ starting lineup on May 21.

15 Associated Press, “Sanders Wows ’Em in Return,” Sidney (Ohio) Daily News, May 2, 2001: 2B.

16 Chris Haft, “Oh, Deion! Prime Cuts Lead Reds,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 2, 2001: D1.

17 McCoy.

18 Hansen was substituting for usual third baseman Adrián Beltré, who was still recovering from an offseason appendectomy and infection. (See Associated Press, “Belle’s Hip Concerns Orioles,” Oakland Tribune, March 5, 2001: Sports-4.) Beltré returned from the disabled list on May 12.

19 The Dodgers finished the 2001 season with an 86-76 record, third in the National League West Division.

20 Roughly two months later, on June 30, 2001, Cincinnati traded Wohlers to the New York Yankees for prospect Ricardo Aramboles. Between both teams, Wohlers ended the season with a 4-1 record and 4.26 ERA.

21 Mark Gokavi, “Prime Time Steals the Show,” Dayton Daily News, May 2, 2001: 1D.

22 Sean McClelland, “Cincinnati Blows 6-1 Lead; Young Provides Seventh-Inning Heroics,” Dayton Daily News, May 2, 2001: 1D.

23 Jason Reid, “Reds’ Sanders Appears to Still Be in His Prime,” Los Angeles Times, May 2, 2001: D1.

24 Fay.

25 Sanders announced his retirement from football in July 2001. He came out of retirement in 2004, played two seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, and retired again in February 2006.

26 “Deion Sanders Admits His 9-Year Baseball Career Feels ‘Incomplete’ Even Today,” College Football Network, March 28, 2025, https://collegefootballnetwork.com/deion-sanders-admits-his-9-year-baseball-career-feels-incomplete-even-today/.

27 Though Sanders suited up for both the Atlanta Braves and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons on October 11, 1992, he only played for the Falcons that day. After the Falcons’ 21-17 away loss to the Miami Dolphins, Sanders met the Braves in Pittsburgh for Game Five of the NL Championship Series – against the Pirates – and spent the game in the dugout.

28 “John Smoltz: Deion Sanders Was ‘the Best Athlete I’ve Ever Seen,’” Fox Sports, May 27, 2023, https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/john-smoltz-deion-sanders-was-the-best-athlete-ive-ever-seen.