Venable '05 excels in Class A baseball

To be named All-Ivy in a sport is commendable. Two sports? Not only is that unheard of, to some it sounds downright preposterous. What about getting paid to play one of those sports?

Enter Will Venable '05, an All-Ivy selection in both baseball and basketball, who now plays minor league baseball with the San Diego Padres.

This past summer, Venable batted .314 with 91 RBI and a .448 slugging percentage in 124 games for the Class A Ft. Wayne, Ind. Wizards. As a senior at Princeton, Venable hit .385 with 33 RBI and an impressive 1.073 OPS to earn All-Ivy honors as an outfielder.

Following his impressive collegiate career, Venable was selected in the seventh round, 218th pick overall of the 2005 Major League Baseball amateur entry draft. In 2004, he was selected in the 15th round by Baltimore, but instead opted to return to Princeton for his senior season.

On the hardwood, Venable was co-captain as a senior, and his 10.5 points and four rebounds per game each ranked second on the team. His 3.9 assists, 1.9 steals and .512-field goal percentage each led the Tigers, and his athleticism often distinguished him as one of the best all-around players in the league. Despite this prolific basketball career, Venable's future lay on the diamond.

While athletics were always a major time commitment for him at Princeton, neither college basketball nor baseball can compare to the amount of time Venable now devotes to baseball — especially on the road.

"There's a lot of traveling," he said. "You're never in the same place [for long]."

Venable recently moved into a house in Phoenix, "which I guess is home now." His house is located near the Padres' spring training facility in Peoria, which he uses during the off-season and for spring training in March and April.

"There is home," he said. "But you're never there for more than a few months."

He could not be farther from home now. He is currently playing for the West Oahu CaneFires of the Hawaii Winter Baseball League, whose 40-game season began in September and lasts until the end of November.

"It's a lot of fun and a beautiful place," Venable said of Hawaii, whose winter league is a popular destination for many top baseball prospects. Venable is batting .250 in his first four games, hitting third and playing right field for the CaneFires.

Once his Hawaiian season ends, Venable plans to find some sort of employment while continuing to practice until spring training fires up. He must maintain a consistent work ethic to achieve his goal and his whole reason for playing baseball: the Major Leagues.

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"I'm definitely not in baseball to play in the minor leagues," he said. "No one is. [The Major Leagues] is the goal, and it takes a while to get there, and I hope it works out. The plan is to get better everyday, and to hopefully get lucky and move up."

While playing for the Wizards, Venable had the opportunity to be mentored by a talented and familiar batting coach: his father. Max Venable, who spent 12 seasons in the Major Leagues as a player, is known throughout the Padres organization as an exceptional hitting coach, and the closeness between father and son helped Will's development.

"It was a great situation," the younger Venable said. "He's a great guy. Baseball is work everyday and to have someone like that to look to makes it that much better."

Venable was not immediately successful when he made the jump from college ball to the professional ranks. While he batted .322 in 15 games in the rookie league, he hit only .216 in 42 games for Class A Eugene in 2005.

"All the guys you face in the minor leagues are the better pitchers you faced in college," he said. "You learn how to deal with it, and the guys who make the adjustments the best are the ones who move on."

While Venable has progressed nicely thus far, if he should suffer an injury or fail to advance in the ranks, he has something to fall back on that almost none of his peers do: a Princeton degree.

"Going into college, I knew [I] needed a backup plan to sports," Venable, an anthropology major, said of his choosing Princeton. "I am honored to play a professional sport, but it's also great to have a Princeton degree. I don't know specifically what my backup plan is, but I see my degree as my backup plan."

Venable will not have to resort to his backup plan quite yet. Because of his success in Ft. Wayne, the Padres plan to elevate him to the Lake Elsinore, Calif., Storm, which, while still Class A, is considered better than Ft. Wayne and a stepping stone to Double A. But for someone who is willing to move to Phoenix or go to Hawaii to practice during the offseason, would Lake Elsinore really be enough?

"The big leagues is the only place to be. Period."