Star UW football recruit struggling with professional baseball
SEATTLE -- University of Washington football fans worried about losing star recruit Shaq Thompson to professional baseball can breathe easy.
The much-ballyhooed Husky commit has spent his summer playing professional baseball, and the results have not been good.
Thompson was the consensus top-rated safety in the county and the crown jewel of coach Steve Sarkisian's most recent recruiting class
He was also a gifted baseball player for Grant High in Sacramento and was picked by the Boston Red Sox in the18th round of the 2012 MLB Draft.
Since the draft, Thompson has been playing in the Gulf Coast League with Boston's minor league affiliate. To say the start to his professional career has been inauspicious would be a bit of an understatement.
In the 13 games he's played with the team, Thompson is batting .000. He's 0 for 39 from the plate and has struck out a whopping 37 times.
Despite his woes on the diamond, few people doubt Thompson's skills on the football field. He was named the player of the year by multiple outlets in California. Not only a defensive star, Thompson also rushed for 1,100 yards and had 15 touchdowns during his senior season at Grant.
In June, Thompson told the Sacramento Bee he plans on reporting to UW late this summer.
The much-ballyhooed Husky commit has spent his summer playing professional baseball, and the results have not been good.
Thompson was the consensus top-rated safety in the county and the crown jewel of coach Steve Sarkisian's most recent recruiting class
He was also a gifted baseball player for Grant High in Sacramento and was picked by the Boston Red Sox in the18th round of the 2012 MLB Draft.
Since the draft, Thompson has been playing in the Gulf Coast League with Boston's minor league affiliate. To say the start to his professional career has been inauspicious would be a bit of an understatement.
In the 13 games he's played with the team, Thompson is batting .000. He's 0 for 39 from the plate and has struck out a whopping 37 times.
Despite his woes on the diamond, few people doubt Thompson's skills on the football field. He was named the player of the year by multiple outlets in California. Not only a defensive star, Thompson also rushed for 1,100 yards and had 15 touchdowns during his senior season at Grant.
In June, Thompson told the Sacramento Bee he plans on reporting to UW late this summer.
Get ready for football Shaq, no doubt you're gonna be a beast in our secondary!
None of the semi-respectability of the baseball, tennis, or golf players for you, Shaq;Â no, you'll take your lumps in a real labor environment where you volunteer your work and your health for a few more years to a billion-dollar a year industry.
He sounds like a future Mariner!
 @Cooter_Brown Comment of the day! Hell, he could start at 3 positions with those numbers!!
 @Cooter_Brown lol!
37 strikeouts in 39 at bats! That's even worse than Michael Jordan's professional baseball career.