Congratulations to the LSU Tigers baseball team. They won their sixth national championship since 1990. In watching them play I noticed some familiar names on the field. The first player I noticed was Chad Jones, who not only plays on the baseball team but is probably better known for his talent on the football field. Jones was brought into the game as a middle reliever pitcher and made his presence known by striking batters out with his fastball. He started the season as an outfielder but struggled some and then decided to try out pitcher, which seemed to work. On the football field, he is a hard hitting safety on defense.
Another player I recognized playing in the outfield was Jared Mitchell, who also plays wide receiver on the football team. Mitchell was recently drafted in the first round of the MLB draft. On the football field, he is not a big star but still gets some reps on offense.
This got me to thinking about what seems to be a current dilemma at Florida State University. For some reason a player must choose one sport to focus on and can not do well at both. Take for example from my recent posting about D'Vontrey Richardson. He like the two LSU players is a very talented athlete and may even be better than the two in either respective sports, football or baseball. Yet for some reason the coaches on both sides do not know how to manage a talented athlete excelling at both sports. Gone are the days of Deion Sanders or Charlie Ward, who excelled in two sports while in college. Now of days it causes so much of a problem that both sides just try to ignore the player and alienate him into quitting. Football coaches have not been in contact with Richardson since the season was over. And in baseball he saw his time severely diminish. Yet he was good enough to be drafted in the fifth round of the MLB draft.
Can FSU please start to get their act together when it comes to player relations? They seem to practice the philosophy that he who cares the least, wins. However, it seems like no one is winning. It makes me feel sorry for D'Vontrey in that he stuck with the school he choose out of high school, when he could have gone to a school like LSU and could've had better opportunities.
Great blog topic! It took me back to my high school days when I was forced to choose between marching band and basketball :o) I must say it was encouraging to see Les Miles in the stands at Rosenblatt Stadium cheering on not only his two football players but the whole baseball team. It's apparent that he and Mainieri have the student athlete's best interests at heart. Got to love that!
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