Q & A with two-sport star B.J. Szymanski

Recently, 'Prince' senior writer Thad Hartmann sat down with sophomore center fielder B.J. Szymanski for some questions and answers.

'Prince': I guess you're a two-sport star now, right?

Szymanski: Yeah.

P: So how long have you been playing both of them?

S: In college or overall?

P: Both.

S: Well, I've played both of them my whole life — baseball since I was three, tackle football since fourth grade.

P: So which is your favorite?

S: Uh ... I can't decide, pretty much whatever one I'm in at the time. I get pretty caught up emotionally in both of them. I couldn't really decide either way.

P: So have you been playing both of them both years here?

S: No, no, I've just started playing baseball this year.

P: What's the difference between playing center field and playing wide receiver? Are there similarities?

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

S: There are a lot of similarities in that, when the ball goes up, the ball is mine. In any situation, center field rules the outfield. He can call off anybody he has to. The same things that make a wide receiver good can make a center fielder good — as far as speed, and that's about it. A lot less contact in baseball.

P: What did you think when [former University of Texas and current Miami Dolphins football player] Ricky Williams signed that minor league [baseball] contract after he won the Heisman?

S: You know, that has always kinda been a possibility in the back of my mind — not a possibility but a thought. I don't know if it's necessarily a possibility, but it's always there, but we've got the amateurism rule at Princeton: in the Ivy League you can't play a pro sport and a college sport at the same time.

P: What do the coaches in the two sports think about playing both? Are the football coaches upset?

S: They ... don't act upset, but they want me playing spring ball, which I am going to try my best to make, at least with my head there at all times. I'll try to show up for practices that I can, not necessarily partake in them physically, but learning the stuff, keeping the stuff fresh in my mind. I'm pretty in tune to baseball right now, but I'm still lifting full time with the football team. Either way, I don't think ... they haven't really told me much, they've left me in the dark.

P: You were recruited for football, but when did you decide to start playing baseball here?

S: Well, I thought about it last year, and then this summer, some things went well, and I just decided that I might as well try to play baseball, give it a shot. I figured if when I was fifty years old and I didn't start playing, I'd regret it.

P: What's the difference between the atmospheres in workouts and practices? S: Football is much more in your face, a much more tense atmosphere. In practice, it's you run everywhere, it's hollering and screaming by coaches, hollering and screaming by players, you know, fights breaking out because it's an intense sport, and in order to get better, everybody's gotta go hard. Baseball is much more laid back. Sometimes practices last 45 minutes, sometimes they'll last a couple hours. It's just ... it's not near ... it's compl ... polar opposites from each other. It's a great break from football to come to a very laid back springtime, summer sport.

P: What about the games? Because there are so many more baseball games, is it not quite as urgent a feeling?

S: No, baseball and football in that sense are just a little different, because growing up playing both, you know that on any given day a football player can perform consistently at their level. I can more or less catch the pass almost every time, but I'm not necessarily going to get a hit every time. It's a lot different sense because you face different pitchers, while in football your abilities always stay the same. You're always throwing with the same quarterback. I could go out on any given day and play well at football, but I could go out and play decent baseball, great baseball and poor baseball. It's an up-and-down sport. Football is more consistent as far as results go.

P: How does that play with your confidence, though?

S: Well, if you've played it for a long time, you realize, any competitive person doesn't want to do bad, but you have to learn that in baseball you're going to have your up days and your down days, your good days, your bad days. The good baseball players are the ones who can put the bad days out of their minds.

P: Bubble gum or sunflower seeds? Which is better?

S: I would take a third choice. Uh, sunflower seeds.

P: Sunflower seeds, all right. So which is harder to catch, a baseball or a football?

S: It's easier to catch a baseball because you have a glove and people aren't trying to tackle you. It's harder to catch a football because there are 250-pound linebackers trying to knock your head off.

P: You're a tall guy, so which sport has the bigger advantage to being tall?

S: I would say that in football it's bigger, because as a six-foot, five-inch wide receiver, you're often facing 5-10 or shorter cornerbacks, and in football, there's more of that one-on-one match up. If I can have the height and have equal speed, I've obviously got the advantage over a smaller cornerback. In baseball, size goes well with having leverage in hitting, and it attributes to my speed in the outfield with long legs, but as far as one-on-one match ups, in football it's more of an advantage.

P: Will you play for the 'Prince' Sports IM softball team? I think we might need some help.

S: Ha ha, I actually played slippery softball over the summer, and on our softball team we had six college football players — all of my high school buddies. We were pretty solid on the softball team. It was good times.

P: What was the winter like when you were playing neither sport in season? Was it relaxing or was it kind of empty?

S: The winter? It wasn't empty, because I started spring running with football thinking that maybe I'd be able to juggle both of them. But I found out that full-time football, full-time baseball, full-time school, part-time job was not going to work out. So I had to quit the running because it was an early morning thing, and I just wasn't getting enough sleep or rest; I was overtraining. I kept the full-time lifting as well as four or five days a week baseball for, oh, about an hour a day. So it wasn't empty; it was a little lighter. Because with football in-season you go to meetings; you've got to get there early to get taped; you've got to go to practice; you have after stuff. You're down there four or five hours a day. It wasn't that long, but it wasn't empty. It was a much-needed break.

P: I was just about to ask you if you ever sleep, but I guess you answered that. What's more important to you? Which would you like to do more — a .350 batting average, a thousand receiving yards, or a 4.0?

S: 4.0. I think a thousand yards receiving and a .350 batting average is attainable, as far as athletics because athletics has always come easier to me. A 4.0 is less attainable at Princeton, but that would be the biggest fulfillment for me.