TAMPA — Patrick Mahomes has been pretty much picture-perfect throughout his NFL career.
There was a time, however, when it seemed as though his road to sports stardom would be as a perfect pitcher.
The son of former major league pitcher Pat Mahomes, who carved out 42 wins across an 11-year career — including a two-season stint for the Red Sox (1996-97) — the younger Mahomes was a whiz-bang Little Leaguer growing up in Tyler, Texas.
Blessed with that wicked, whippy arm that everyone is now familiar with, he pitched and played shortstop for a team that made it all the way to the championship game of the 2010 Junior League World Series.
And when he stepped on the campus of Whitehouse High, it still seemed as though the diamond and not the gridiron was where he would shine brightest. He drew the interest of major league scouts in a region known for cranking out stars in baseball and football.
But Mahomes’s passion for football still burned, and after playing safety his sophomore year, he seized the starting quarterback job for the Wildcats early in his junior year. Not surprisingly, he was an instant success.
As he continued to excel in both sports, Mahomes eluded major league scouts the way he now avoids defensive ends and linebackers who’ve set their sights on him. He kept the baseball scouts at bay and insisted that football was his No. 1 priority and that his plan was to play quarterback collegiately.
Still, he continued to play baseball, and his highlight moment came in a playoff game in which he was pitted against Michael Kopech, a fireballing righty from Mount Pleasant High.
Kopech, who was taken 33d overall by the Red Sox in 2014, was sensational. He allowed just one hit and struck out a dozen Wildcats.
Still, Mahomes stole the show.
He fired a no-hitter, hit a home run, and struck out 16 Tigers en route to a 2-1 victory.
After the game Mahomes told reporters, “I’m hard to hit.”
Defenders across the NFL can concur.
Despite impressing the dozens of major league scouts on hand with his low 90s fastball, Mahomes stuck to his commitment to play football at Texas Tech.
Nevertheless, Mahomes was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 37th round of the 2014 major league draft. When he arrived in Lubbock, he decided to continue his baseball career.
It didn’t go so well.
Holding a 6-0 lead against Northern Illinois, Red Raiders coach Tim Tadlock decided to give his freshman righthander a look. Mahomes received a standing ovation as he trotted in from the bullpen. That’s where the highlight ended.
“I came into the game, walked the first guy, I believe, hit the second guy, I gave up a double and they scored a run,” Mahomes said this week. “Then I got taken out of the game.’'
You can forgive the Chiefs quarterback if his memory of the forgettable 15-pitch appearance is a little foggy. He actually didn’t give up a hit, but threw just four strikes and called it a career.
“I think I have, like, an infinity ERA, which is probably a good one,’' Mahomes said. “That’s not something I’m very proud to have on my record.”
Let the record show that Mahomes has a pretty good record since that final mound appearance.
He will be gunning for his second consecutive Super Bowl title Sunday against Tom Brady, who was also a baseball draftee out of high school; the Expos called the former catcher’s name in the 18th round in 1995 — the year Mahomes was born.
While Brady has gotten the majority of the attention this week as he goes for his seventh Super Bowl win in 10 trips, Mahomes is seen as the NFL’s face of the future even as he dominates the present.
Mahomes, however, said he can’t get caught up in trying to replace Brady as the league’s most recognizable figure, or where his place in league annals might be. He won’t buy into the story line that this could be the passing of the quarterback torch. For him, it’s all about preparation for one game — a focused attitude that Brady has perfected.
“I think that’s more of a long-term thing than a short-term thing,” said Mahomes. “You have to focus on, for me, trying to find a way to repeat, find a way to win a second championship and find a way to do whatever I can to win with this team.
“You don’t get these opportunities every year in the NFL, to be in the Super Bowl and to be in these games, so you don’t want to look back and have regrets on how you played or how you went about the week before preparing to go out there and play your best football.
“When the end of your career is done, then you can kind of look and see where those moments were in your career where you could’ve had something or that you executed and you did go out there and achieve your dreams.”
As for this Super Bowl matchup, the first to pit former NFL MVPs and Super Bowl MVPs against one another, Mahomes believes he’ll be 100 percent healthy after dealing with a lingering toe injury. He will need his quickness, elusiveness, and uncanny ability to make throws on the run against a hearty Buccaneers pass rush.
“When I’m scrambling, it gives those guys more time to work, more time to get open, it’s going to be hard [on the defense],” he said. “They try to cover as long as possible, but if I can give guys like Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, Mecole Hardman, Sammy Watkins, all of these guys, more time to get open, they usually can do it.
“At that point, I try to get them the ball. Usually, it’s not that long of a throw, but when you get those guys in space, they can make a lot of yards happen after the catch.”
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.