Baseball or Football?? Villanova's Szczur will have to choose

[jstclmet]

It is a scenario that many two-sport athletes face: They must give up a sport they love to focus on the other one.

This one, however, comes with a $500,000 bonus.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/colleges/20100731_Baseball_or_football__Villanova_s_Szczur_ will_have_to_choose.html

[TSUalum05]

Good read - its definitely a risk with both sports and trying to get your money. As a minor league baseball player you make no more than 1500 a month unless you've been in the major leagues and been sent back to the minors. Or if you are on the 40 man roster for your major league team.

Then with football, the $$ is not guarenteed. This has to be a hard decision.

[Rob Iola]

Dear Mr. Szczszczur,

Please choose baseball.

Sincerely,
FCS Teams not named Villanova

P.S. With that signing bonus consider buying some vowels for your last name...

[UNH Fanboi]

I had no idea you could accept money and play in the minors while still playing college sports. How is that allowed?

[KAUMASS]

I had no idea you could accept money and play in the minors while still playing college sports. How is that allowed?

He is only considered a professional in baseball...he is not eligible to play college baseball anymore as he has been paid...

First & foremost, he needs to get through this football season without injury. If he does, he's good enough to make the bigs in either sport. I wish him well. He needs to do what his instincts tell him to do. Making the pros statistically in either sport is a crapshoot, both sports have their pros and cons physically & mentally. He should give Brian Jordan a call and ask him what he would do if he could do it all over again...

[caribbeanhen]

Baseball is the way to go and I am asuming he's good enough to make the Major's...if your good you can play 20 years and still walk when you retire, football, he'll be lucky to play 5 years...MLB young man

[PhoenixSupreme]

Don't know if it's extended or not, but as of last Monday Szczur had a 15-game hitting streak in Boise. Sounds like he is doing allright so far with the Cubs Short-Season A team

[UNH Fanboi]

He is only considered a professional in baseball...he is not eligible to play college baseball anymore as he has been paid...


Then what happened to Jeremy Bloom? I thought he had to quit college football because he was getting money for the Olympics.

[Squealofthepig]

Then what happened to Jeremy Bloom? I thought he had to quit college football because he was getting money for the Olympics.

Believe Bloom was declared "partly" ineligible. Fuzzy decision? Yeah, but since when is the NCAA completely consistent? :)

For Szczur, happy to see him back for another year (even though as a Griz fan AND a St. Louis Cardinals fan, I'm required to despise him on multiple levels). He's just plain fun to watch, and was impressed to see him take over the game last year in Chatty.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

I'm pretty sure Ricky Williams had a professional baseball contract while he was at Texas.

[ngineer]

Was "sort of" looking forward to seeing Szczur at Goodman Stadium on September 11...Then, again...xrolleyesx

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Was "sort of" looking forward to seeing Szczur at Goodman Stadium on September 11...Then, again...xrolleyesx

I'm looking forward to a lot of things that day at Goodman, Szczur is not one of them. Same goes for Sept 3rd at the Linc.

[SumItUp]

I'm not sure how many games he had before the hit streak ended, but he was 0-5 on the 30th and 31st of July.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=OF&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=519333

[RookieWill]

Jeremy Bloom lost his eligibility because he was sponsored in skiing by companies, which in the ncaa's eyes are the equivalent of endorsements. For some reason, the NCAA treats that differently than salary from a team (I guess the point is it would allow a company to circumvent the rules).

There are a few examples of szczur's situation - ricky Williams and jeff smardjian from notre dame.

I think there is a clearer path to the NFL than there is MLB and if matt is a 4th or 5th round draft pick, I would be surprised if he didn't pursue the NFL. Plus, reading that article, seems he likes football better