Now I had to still be reasonable though, hear me out. I simply told my son, "You have two options for a "job." One is to take the lawn tractor and start mowing lawns, baby sitting, whatever. THE OTHER OPTION IS SPORTS. I will allow you to make sports your job." Now what does that mean? For the rest of the summer my son's life looked like this: Monday thru Thursday he was to have breakfast and be done with Xbox by 9am. From 9am until 3pm he was to be "working." What qualified for "work" was practicing his craft. Doing T-work in garage (have simple indoor batting rig in garage, see HSBW topic "Batting Cages"), shooting hoops in driveway, reading a book, lifting age appropriate weights, footwork, etc. THAT WAS HIS JOB, Monday thru Thursday only...
Sorry, but I disagree with replacing normal work responsibilities entirely with baseball/sports work.
I think it is very important to hold kids accountable for normal work activities, regardless of whether they are involved in sports. Some allowances can be made considering the time it takes to work on their sport of choice and their ultimate goals with those sports. But to completely replace earning one's keep with working on one's game is feeding the "entitlement" animal and missing on some very important adolescent learning points. It also feels a bit like bribery to get them to participate in what you want them to instead of education, motivation and inspiration to help them succeed in what they want.
I also think it is a bit early (14 y.o.) to think of sports as 100% "job".
I'm guessing that your link to the ND athlete didn't tell the whole story. I would bet that he still had plenty of work and earning responsibilities outside of his training as well during his HS years.
Don't get me wrong. I think helping a young man learn how to allocate time to work on his game is a good thing. I think gradually learning that sports at a higher level are largely work is a necessary lesson if that is the aspiration. I just think there needs to be balance in the process.