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Reply to "Baseball Players Who Play High School Football"

@DanJ

Since we are from Maryland, I looked up a local D3 (St. Mary's College). They have 8 players from the conference my son used to play in. Fun side story: It's also where my daughter's teammate pitched and played women's basketball (my son's first HS AB was in a scrimmage facing his sister's teammate--she walked him). Here's what I found:

Player 1: Played baseball, basketball, and football; Player 9: Two-sport athlete (basketball, baseball); Player 10:  Two-sport athlete (basketball, baseball) I double checked this to make sure I didn't double count, Player 9 and 10 are different players; Player 11: Played baseball and basketball for the Generals; Player 12: Played baseball and soccer for the Saints; Player 15: Member of the baseball and golf teams for the Scorpions; Player 21: Played baseball and basketball for the Hawks; Player 22: Member of the baseball, football, and wrestling teams for the Griffins; Player 29: Played baseball and football for Kent County High School

So out of roster of 31, 9 played other sports (there were some incomplete bios... so it could feasibly be a few more). I also looked up two local mid-majors and one other D3 but could not find HS bios in them. The St. Mary's bios clearly don't say how many years or how successful they were in their second sport in HS. It also shows less players playing more than baseball than in my first example but it is statistically significant (anything above the Mendoza line LOL).  Also, this is HS sports we are talking about when a lot of us know the travel coaches who won't let kids play other sports as early as 11 or 12 (I hear soccer is awful with this at higher levels).

I hope you know that I am not challenging the decision you or anyone else has made to specialize because I am not your kid's parent and I do not know your whole situation. It may1000% (extra zero intentional) be the best decision for your kid to specialize and my son may have benefitted from quitting basketball sooner. I just want to make sure that any kid/parent who is considering playing multiple sports knows that it is possible. At any level. As with everything, listen to your kid, figure out what he wants, help him weigh the pros and cons, and make the best decision for his overall future knowing that both paths have been successful. Interestingly, sometimes the cons are the same no matter which way you go so you have to decide which one you want to live with (e.g. injury: from playing another sport or from repetitive use; burn out: from always being "in season" or from never getting a break from baseball).

Sorry if I'm being annoying but I do think this is an important discussion and I do think some of the responses in favor and against multi sports have become gimmicky and not very thoughtful. I love that we can have real discussions about it on HSBBW!

Last edited by PTWood
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