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The crossover: 3 MLB players who experienced March Madness glory

Tim Bradbury / Getty Images Sport / Getty

It's March and the madness has begun.

The 2018 NCAA tournament kicked off Thursday and over the next two-and-a-half weeks, audiences will be treated to a mix of buzzer-beaters, tears of disappointment, and triumphant glory.

Thousands of athletes have taken part in what's become one of the most talked-about events in sports since its inception in 1939.

Among those were players who chose paths other than basketball to continue their sports careers, such as Major League Baseball.

MLB Hall of Famer and Minnesota sports great Dave Winfield was a star forward for the 1972 Golden Gophers squad that won the Big Ten championship and appeared in the NCAA tournament for the first time. MLBPA executive director Tony Clark was a member of the 1990 Arizona Wildcats team that reached the Round of 32 as a No. 2 seed.

However, neither Winfield nor Clark experienced one of those particularly magical moments the tournament is known for. Here are three former MLB players who did:

Randy Winn, Santa Clara, 1993

Former big-league All-Star Randy Winn, who spent 13 years in the show with a wide assortment of teams, was part of one of the biggest upsets in March Madness history in 1993 as a member of the Santa Clara Broncos.

Led by eventual two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash, No. 15-ranked Santa Clara upset No. 2 Arizona in the first round of the tournament, with the game going down to the wire.

Santa Clara wound up losing in the next round to Temple, but its opening performance made history and was the beginning of Nash's rise to superstardom.

Winn, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard with the Broncos, averaged 2.0 points and 1.0 rebounds that season and was eventually drafted in the third round (65th overall) by the Florida Marlins in the 1995 entry draft.

Danny Ainge, BYU, 1981

He may not have been Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders, but Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge was once an impressive two-sport star in his own right. Ainge not only played in the NBA, but also had a short-lived career with the Toronto Blue Jays. Plus, he was responsible for an incredible NCAA tournament moment.

In 1981, Ainge's coast-to-coast buzzer-beater helped BYU defeat favorite Notre Dame to reach the regional finals of the tournament before losing to Virginia, the eventual third-place finisher. That was also Ainge's last year as a member of the Blue Jays, after he appeared in 211 big-league games in which he hit .220/.264/.269 with two home runs and 37 RBIs.

Kenny Lofton, Arizona, 1988 and '89

Kenny Lofton was not only a six-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner, five-time stolen base champion, and inductee into the Cleveland Indians' Hall of Fame, but he had himself a pretty nice college basketball career, too.

Lofton attended the University of Arizona on a basketball scholarship and was a backup point guard to current Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr when the Wildcats reached the Final Four of the 1988 NCAA tournament.

He took over as the starting point guard after Kerr departed for the NBA and wound up going to the Sweet 16 the next year.

Lofton is just one of two men (Tim Stoddard being the other) to appear in a Final Four and World Series.

He had some hops, too:

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)

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