Photo by Scott Troyanos
Arizona State University left-hander Ryan Mills, a junior, is expected by coaches and teammates to leave after the 1998 season and be drafted as an early-round pick in the summer Major League Baseball amateur draft.
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Photo by Scott Troyanos
Arizona State University left-hander Ryan Mills, a junior, is expected by coaches and teammates to leave after the 1998 season and be drafted as an early-round pick in the summer Major League Baseball amateur draft. |
By Percy Ednalino
Two outs. Top of the ninth inning at ASU's Packard Stadium. The Sun Devils have a 9-0 lead over Southern Illinois.
A batter swaggers to home plate, ready for whatever Sun Devil Ryan Mills will throw. Mills, a left-handed pitcher, has 16 strikeouts and needs one more to tie the team record. He lowers his head slightly and looks for a sign from catcher Greg Halvorson.
Fastball. Mills nods, stretches into a windup and releases a pitch.
Whoosh. Strike one. The batter is caught looking. A scout's radar gun reads 92 mph.
Mills then shakes away Halvorson's sign for a change-up. The batter is looking for that pitch. Halvorson flashes a new sign. Another fastball. Mills nods in agreement, palms the ball in his glove and goes into his windup.
Mills knows every pitch counts, not only for the game, but for his future. Like many of his ASU teammates, the 20-year-old junior broadcasting major wants to make it to the major leagues.
And, like other high-profile players around the country, his teammates and coaches expect him to forgo his senior year and join the professional baseball ranks as a high-round draft choice after the end of the 1998 season.
"I was really into it (the draft) out of high school," Mills said. "I didn't let it affect my season or my performance on the field, but I read into it a lot and I thought about it a lot."
It's the lure of a fat contract, possible commercial endorsements and the glamour of playing professionally that finds many undergraduate college athletes -- particularly baseball players -- fleeing their universities before earning their degrees.
College baseball's relationship to the pros is unique. Often, college baseball coaches have to compete with the major leagues twice: during the recruiting process when the prospect is in high school and then again three years into his collegiate career.
Even when college coaches are able to sign and enroll a high school star, they know full well that their chances of keeping his services for more than three years are slim. Recruiting often is tailored to deal with the contingency of a player choosing to go to the majors directly out of high school.
The days of Division I coaches -- not only in baseball but also in basketball and football -- having to deal exclusively with trying to piece together a winning team and stay in compliance with NCAA regulations have become increasingly complicated.
The newest challenge is keeping student-athletes on the team and in school.
Getting drafted into the major leagues is common -- and expected -- for ASU baseball players. In 1997, 11 former Sun Devils were listed on major league rosters. In the program's history, 68 former players have toiled in the major leagues, more than from any other school in the nation. Of that number, all but seven left school early. It's ASU's winning tradition and strong ties to the major leagues that entice many recruits to wear Sun Devil maroon and gold.
ASU baseball coach Pat Murphy, who will start his 13th year as a college head coach (fourth at ASU) this spring, has both won and lost the recruiting battle with the major leagues. In 1995, his first season at ASU, Murphy's recruiting class was graded as the nation's best.
Last spring, Murphy signed Shane Loux out of Gilbert Highland High School, only to lose the pitcher to the amateur draft during the summer. But in 1995, Murphy's first year as head coach for the Sun Devils, he was successful in signing Mills -- and getting the left-hander to stay and play for ASU, despite the lure of a $500,000 offer from the New York Yankees.
Mills battled back from injury during his freshman season at ASU to emerge in 1997 as one of the hottest pitchers in the country.
At 6-foot-5, 185 pounds -- and with a screaming fastball consistently clocked in the low 90s -- he strikes an imposing figure on the pitcher's mound.
But his college presence at Packard Stadium was not a foregone conclusion. Mills was pursued aggressively by the Yankees coming out of Horizon High School in Scottsdale and was considered an early-round draft choice.
Because he declared his intention to attend ASU, his stock fell and the Yankees drafted him in the 13th round of the 1995 amateur draft.
Major League Baseball guidelines, in connection with the NCAA, state that high school players are eligible for the amateur baseball draft and may sign with a professional team immediately after graduation. However, if the player opts to go to college, he is not eligible for the draft until he reaches age 21 (if he has used his redshirt season) or after his junior year.
ASU assistant baseball coach Doug Schreiber said there currently is no NCAA legislation regarding early departures. Any changes would have to be initiated by the professional organizations.
"We're kind of waiting until someone actually challenges it," Schreiber said.
Schreiber is in charge of recruiting for the Sun Devils. He said in the past, juniors who left the program early typically have not returned to complete their degrees.
He added that is something Murphy and his staff want to change. Schreiber said that, depending on the size of the class, 75 to 80 percent of Sun Devil juniors are drafted by the major leagues. He added that players on the team currently are required to take 15 units each semester. By their junior years, players should be only 30 units away from completing their degrees.
"When you get that close, you want to finish your degree," Schreiber said.
And how. According to the 1997 baseball media guide, all of the players Murphy has recruited have graduated. Five players have transferred to other schools.
"What's important in recruiting is to recruit the right kids," Murphy said. "Kids who are going to learn, who are going to buy into your program and be good people. That's the key in recruiting -- to get the types of players that want to be student-athletes.
"We're still college athletics. Sure, it's still, 'win, win, win,' but it's still about getting a degree, and it's still about getting an education."
For Mills, getting an education is important. The pros can wait a while longer. They have waited before. During negotiations, the Yankees remained steadfast with an offer of $500,000 to the high school senior. The offer, although sizable, was not as much as he had expected, so he declined and began his career as a Sun Devil.
Mills said he knew ASU was where he wanted to play. He added that going to college was more important than playing pro ball -- although had the Yankees offered what he wanted, he may have bypassed college.
"Honestly, I didn't really want to sign (a pro contract) out of high school," he said. "It really wasn't the money. Maybe I've led people to believe I didn't know what I wanted to do and I didn't know the reasons for it. I just didn't want to sign.
"My heart told me to go to college. And I didn't know why. It just felt right."
Murphy said he understands why the pitcher shot down the Yankees' offer.
"Mills felt like he was a first-round pick and deserved to be treated as such," Murphy said. "He thought enough of his abilities that he could come to college, begin his education and get that same deal three years later. We'll see if that's the case. I firmly believe it is the case."
Mills spent much of his freshman year at ASU recovering from a fractured cheekbone. He suffered it when a first-inning, line drive hit him in the face during his pitching debut and abruptly shattered his dream of instant collegiate stardom.
Mills said that while he was recuperating from his injury, he had no regrets about his decision to attend college instead of pursuing a professional deal.
"I never thought back, I don't know why," he said. "I guess it would have been a good time to look back. I never thought I'd be out that long. It took me a while to realize just how severe an injury it was, but I always knew I'd come back and be fine."
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Photo by Scott Troyanos Dealing with the major leagues while recruiting players is something Arizona State University head coach Pat Murphy (center) has been successful in doing. |
Like Mills, Fresno State right hander Jeff Weaver turned down the dazzle of a major league contract. Weaver, who also is expected to get a sweet deal from the major leagues in the 1998 baseball amateur draft, is returning for his junior year with the Bulldogs.
Weaver was drafted 62nd overall in the second round of the 1997 amateur draft by the Chicago White Sox after pitching on the 1996 bronze-medal-winning U.S. Olympic team.
A walk-on to the Bulldog baseball program, Weaver spent his freshman year sitting in the dugout as a redshirt player. Because he was not drafted by the major leagues out of high school, he was eligible for the baseball amateur draft during his sophomore season. He will be eligible again after the 1998 season.
"He'll have the same leverage in next year's draft as well," said Josh Lehman, Fresno State's baseball media relations director.
Bulldogs coach Bob Bennett said he prepared himself to deal with Weaver's departure.
"I really wasn't nervous," he added. "I thought we were going to lose him, so I had resigned myself to that."
However, Weaver was not satisfied with the deal the White Sox gave him and decided to return to Fresno State for his junior year. Bennett said he was relieved to have Weaver return but had started to focus on rebuilding the team without him.
"I already felt like we were going to have a good pitching staff without him," the coach said. "Suddenly, we find out that we have him. That's a big, big plus."
Like ASU's Mills, Weaver is expected to be taken higher in the next draft.
"That's part of the thinking," Lehman said.
Lehman said early departures happen frequently in college baseball. A majority of this year's crop of major league draft picks were college juniors or high school seniors bound for college.
For Mike Gillespie, head baseball coach at the University of Southern California, it's a system that needs to be changed.
Gillespie, who has been the Trojans' baseball coach since 1987, said baseball is peculiar in relation to other sports when trying to determine which players will leave for the draft and which ones will return to their respective schools.
"In football and basketball, there are no surprises," he said. He acknowledged that it is easy to know if a high-profile baseball star is going to leave.
"It's not tough to figure out if a Ryan Mills is going to go," Gillespie said. "It's the other guys on the team you have to worry about."
Those "other guys" he referred to are the players who are capable -- but not high-profile. Gillespie sees them as being the most difficult to gauge concerning their decision to leave for the pros. "I think the lifeblood (of college baseball) is the guys who are not high picks," he said. "Those are the kinds of guys that save you."
Gillespie added that he feels the system should be changed to keep players in school through their senior years but knows changes won't be implemented anytime soon.
"I do think it should be changed, but realistically, professional baseball holds all the cards," he said.
It used to be that college was a place students wanted to go to, with professional sports as an option. Now, some baseball and basketball superstars -- such as Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett and Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant -- are bypassing college altogether for the pros. Still, others -- such as former ASU football tailback Terry Battle -- use college as an early springboard to professional contracts.
Battle, who opted to leave school after his junior year, helped lead the Sun Devils to the 1997 Rose Bowl. He finished the year with 1,043 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns.
Two months after ASU lost 20-17 to Ohio State in Pasadena, the 5-foot-11 running back announced he would forgo his senior year and declared his eligibility for the spring NFL draft. Battle was taken in the seventh round by the Detroit Lions.
Because he is listed on the Lions' depth chart behind All-Pro running back Barry Sanders, Battle has seen little playing time during his rookie season.
NFL guidelines state that players must reach their junior year in college before they can enter the draft. NBA rules are different. Players can declare their eligibility at any time -- even after their senior year in high school.
ASU football coach Bruce Snyder said he wasn't emotional about Battle's decision to leave.
"My position at the time was not to prevent him," he said. "I couldn't anyway. It's their right by law. But I just felt like it wasn't in his best interest. I counseled him in that way, and he still felt it was the best thing."
Snyder also said there are no hard feelings between the two and Battle has been back to visit. He added that he prefers that players complete their education while at college, but he knows that doesn't always happen.
"You recruit a guy and you want it to have a normal progression to where they complete their eligibility, they complete their graduation and (earn their) degree, and move on," Snyder said. "That's the way I grew up, in terms of when I was playing and early on in coaching -- a progression. In today's world, however, things have changed. You just have to get over it."
Some athletes are staying true to their collegiate goals and returning for their degrees. Every year, several former Sun Devils return to receive their degrees.
Jill DeMichele, ASU assistant athletic director in charge of academic services, said the NCAA has a program that allows athletes who have left early for the pros to return to a university, complete their requirements and earn their degrees. She added that last year, 38 former players returned to ASU and completed their degrees.
Graduation rates for football, baseball and basketball players at ASU are not good. Of freshman baseball players in the 1990-91 school year, no one has graduated. Of the freshmen football players that year, 39 percent have graduated. Of that year's freshman basketball players, 20 percent have graduated.
DeMichele said the figures for all three sports are expected to rise at ASU. She also said the low numbers for baseball reflect the early departures of players to the major leagues. She pointed out, however, that approximately 80 percent of ASU's football players who were on the 1997 Rose Bowl team are on track to graduate.
DeMichele said 10 percent of ASU's athletes last year left school early for a professional career.
Even though early departures are part of college sports, some athletic department officials remain firm in believing that coaches don't have to plan for them when recruiting.
"I honestly don't think that college coaches recruit thinking that someone's going to go pro," said Mark Brand, ASU athletics media director. "I just think that they try to recruit the best players they can to replace players who have left. I don't think Bruce Snyder recruits a Terry Battle, thinking that after his junior year, he's going to go to the pros."
Snyder agreed. "I think you recruit the best players that you can. Period," he said. "Don't worry about that other deal. Now once they're here and they start playing and they start playing early, and they are excelling and are excellent players, then you know there's that chance."
Snyder said college football coaches have changed the way they treat their recruits. Now, rather than keep a player with star potential on the bench and redshirt him during his first year, coaches often try to immediately get as much playing time out of him as possible.
"If you were to redshirt him his freshman year, and he plays two seasons and goes, you had only two seasons with him," Snyder said. "If you play him his freshman season, then you might be able to get three seasons out of him. If I've got a really legitimate player, I'm going to try and play him earlier in his career than I normally would have."
For some players, like Battle, leaving school early is an opportunity they can't miss. For others, like Mills, finishing off their collegiate careers and then making the transition into the pros is important.
Mills said he's glad he turned down the Yankees' offer.
"It gave me the opportunity to come here, blossom and grow as a person in college," he said.
He's also grown as a player, notching a 6-3 record in 97 innings pitched last season. He led the conference in ERA last season with a 2.88 mark and ranked fifth in strikeouts with 103.
Mills said he expects to do better this year. He knows he has to work hard if the Sun Devils want to return to the NCAA Regionals and possibly move on to Omaha for the College World Series.
If Mills plays like he did against Southern Illinois last season, the Sun Devils could do just that.
Here's the pitch. Whoosh. Strike two. The batter swings and misses. The scout's gun reads 93 mph. The batter steps out of the box, takes two practice swings and returns. Mills gets the sign from the catcher. Another fastball. Again, Mills nods in agreement and winds up.
The ball smacks into the catcher's mitt. Strike three. The batter again is caught looking. The gun reads 95 mph and the batter walks away in disgust. Mills pumps his fist in the air in jubilation and walks off the mound. He has collected his 17th strikeout and pitched a complete game, the first of his career.
The Sun Devils go on to shut out the Salukis, 9-0. Mills gives up seven hits and walks three batters.
More significantly, the win was his first in a Sun Devil uniform. The specter of his freak injury in 1996 had been vanquished.
The lefty would finish the 1997 season the same way he started it: by hurling a complete-game win. He gave up two runs and struck out four in seven innings of work in a 10-2 ASU win over Florida International during the NCAA Atlantic Regionals at Miami, Fla.
He knows next spring may be his last in a Sun Devil uniform, and he said he's glad he's been able to play for ASU.
"It's just been a great experience that I can look back on later in life," he said. "I can say, 'Yeah, I went to college and played baseball there. I just had a great time.' "