The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, June 23, 1999, Image 3

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    The it
Battalion
PORTS
Page 3 • Wednesday, June 23, 1999
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BY DOUG SHILLING
The Battalion
tiontc
Hlohn Scheschuk’s road to becoming a base-
U proball player at Texas A&M started in a very
stninge place — in front of a television. That
rxaslns rolg | ias n0 w taken him from a standout career
T exas as a first baseman at Texas A&M to a seventh-
igptog' rolnd draft pick of the San Diego Padres,
engines WThe summer after he turned three, he was sit-
M clairfinj i n front of the television with his mother
sonlyg 1 j u iy watching a Houston Astros game. As he
3(idnixr sa {; there, John pointed at the TV and told his
ms ' mfther, “1 want to know how to do that.”
nologysfHshe asked him to go and point at the televi-
lelpspr: sion to show her what exactly it was he want-
' light,tf ed o know how to do.
a voices ® when he pointed at the pitcher, Mrs.
There, 1 Scheschuk did the only thing she knew to do —
signal c ship went and got John’s glove and took him out
has t inlhe front yard and started trying to teach him
nost k how to throw and how to pitch. Throughout the
centers
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Schumacher pursues
big-league aspirations
SALLIE TURNER/Thf. Battalion
A&M senior first baseman John Scheschuk, who finished the 1999 season with a .336 batting
average and 16 home runs to place second in both for the Aggies, was drafted by San Diego.
process, there was only one thing that tripped
up Mrs. Scheschuk and her son.
■ “I’m right-handed and John’s left-handed, so
it was hilarious,” Mrs. Scheschuk said. “I was
trying to figure out how to do it left-handed so
1 could show him. We had a lot of laughs over
it, but that’s where he started.”
"When John’s father passed away a few
nths before, his mother became the influen-
figure in his life. Throughout the years, she
w^s always at the forefront in John’s life both
athletically and personally.
■ “Me and my mother are very close,”
7C1! Scheschuk said. “I just grew up with her my
1 OU whole life. She’s always been there for me. She
supported me in my athletics and especially
: baseball all the time. She’s been a great influ-
• l! ' en ence on my life.”
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When John was in high school, he certainly
gave his mother many things to support. Not
only was he a standout as a pitcher and first
baseman at Pasadena’s Dobie High School,
where he was named All-Greater Houston Play
er of the Year in 1995, he was also starting quar
terback on the football team and a starter on the
basketball team.
Despite his success in other sports, John
knew early on in high school that baseball
would be his sport of the future.
“I’d probably say 1 knew sometime during
my freshman and sophomore years,” John said.
“It was just the one that was coming most nat
urally to me.”
When the time came around for John to de
cide on a college, it was a potentially rough de
cision. Since his mother, father and brother at
tended the University of Texas, there might have
been pressure on him to follow in their foot
steps. However, for John, it came down to just
two schools — Rice and A&M. Once he made
his trip to College Station though, his mind was
made up.
“It wasn’t a hard decision for me,” he said.
“When I came on my recruiting trip, it wasn’t
even close just because of the atmosphere and
the great college town. It really made up my
mind for me when I got there.
Mrs. Scheschuk said that even though
John did not follow in her footsteps to being
a Longhorn, she knew that he made the right
choice.
“He got up there and just fell in love with it,”
Mrs. Scheschuk said. “We both had a feeling
when we left there that A&M was the right
choice to make.”
Once he got to A&M, John’s career really did
not get a chance to take off.
During his freshman and sophomore years,
he played sparingly as he was behind senior first
basemen on the depth chart both years. Al
though he did not get to play as much, John said
he does not regret his time on the bench.
“I wouldn’t trade the way it happened,” he
said, “because I did get in there and get some
experience, and I think that helped me down
the road.”
When he finally did start during his junior
year, he did not disappoint. John finished sec
ond on the team with a .336 batting average and
second in home runs with 16 including an A&M
school record with home runs in five straight
games. One of his home runs came in the Re
gional Championship against Mississippi State
University, a game the Aggies lost.
see Scheschuk on Page 4.
BY RUTH STEPHENS
The Battalion
Senior catcher Shawn Schumach
er, who led the Texas A&M Baseball
Team with a .374 batting average this
season, left College Station Tuesday
in pursuit of a professional baseball
career with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Schumacher will join the Cardi
nals’ developmental-league team in
Augusta, NJ.
Schumacher said professional
baseball has been a goal of his for a
long time.
“It’s something I’ve worked for all
of my life,” he said.
St. Louis is not the first team to
draft Schumacher. The Pittsburgh Pi
rates drafted him after his second
year at Panola Junior College in
Carthage, Texas, but Schumacher de
cided to pass on the offer in or
der to play Division I baseball.
Schumacher spent his junior
year at the University of Texas,
where he was moved from
catcher to first base.
Schumacher said profession-
Senior catcher
Shawn Schu
macher, who
led the Texas
A&M Baseball
Team with a .374 bat
ting average, was draft
ed by the St. Louis Car
dinals in this year’s
Major League Baseball
college draft.
al scouts warned him his baseball fu
ture was as a catcher, not as a first
baseman, so he decided to move to
a program where he would have an
opportunity to catch.
“Coach [Mark] Johnson offered
me the opportunity to play at A&M,”
Schumacher said. “He gave me no
guarantees, though. I had to win the
catcher’s spot.”
Schumacher said his catching
skills were rusty after a year at first
base, but the A&M coaches came ear
ly and stayed late to help him im
prove his defensive skills.
James Schumacher, Shawn’s fa
ther, credits the coaches for his son’s
success.
“The coaches were a real plus for
Shawn,” he said. “I can’t emphasize
enough their positive influence. They
helped him get over the edge. ”
Schumacher said
this season was a
“Cinderella story,”
see Catcher
on Page 4.
SALLIE TURNER/The Battalion
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