Thursday is opening day for MLB and in another life, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow might be taking the field for a team.

Instead, Burrow will have to settle for throwing out the first pitch next Tuesday for the Cincinnati Reds' home-opener against the Cleveland Guardians.

We already know that Burrow is an incredible football player. And most folks know he was an all-state basketball player at Athens High School in Ohio. The star quarterback has even said before that he thinks he could've played in the NBA.

But what about baseball? Could Burrow have been an MLB star?

It's certainly possible, according to one of his old teammates.

Adam Luehrman, one of Burrow's football and basketball teammates at Athens High School, recently spoke to Bengals.com about Burrow's skills on the diamond.

"Baseball was the big sport when we were younger. We played it the entire summer growing up," said Luehrman. "He stopped playing when we got to high school, but we played it every summer from the summer he moved there (second grade) until we were like 14. He was good. He could hit."

Luehrman also noted that Burrow hit third or fourth in the lineup, played shortstop, center field, and pitched (he apparently had a great cutter).

"We had a pretty good team in our league and travel ball," added Luehrman. "We were our top three pitchers. Him. Me. My brother (twin Ryan). We'd play all summer. We won a lot of tournaments."

The future NFL superstar, however, stopped playing baseball when he got to high school so he could focus on football and basketball.

It's no surprise that Burrow was a star baseball player as a youngster. I've yet to see anything Burrow can't do.

Burrow has great physical abilities, but it's his insane competitiveness that has him on another level. I have no doubt that if Burrow had chosen to focus on baseball, we'd be seeing him in a opening day lineup on Thursday.

Featured image via Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports