Mitchell, Decker: Two-sport stars

• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: May 29, 2009

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LSU right fielder Jared Mitchell also has 20 catches as a wide receiver on the Tigers football team over the last two seasons.

Who’s to say how good he’d be on the football field if he wasn’t a projected first-round draft pick in Major League Baseball’s June draft by Baseball America and a key component in the lineup for LSU’s No. 2-ranked baseball team.

Minnesota wide receiver Eric Decker also hits .332 as a starting center fielder for the Golden Gophers baseball team.

Who’s to say how good of a baseball player he’d be if he wasn’t also a Biletnikoff Award finalist for the Minnesota football team who had 84 receptions for 1,074 yards in the 2008 season.

The duo are somewhat rare commodities these days. Both are talented enough to play two sports at a high level in Division I. Both are looking at professional futures in one of the sports. Both also know they cannot be at their best in both sports.

“Every sport in this day and age are, as much as they can be, a year-around program,” said Mitchell, who is hitting .326 with eight home runs for the baseball team.

“When he (the two-sport player) is here, other guys are still there (at the other sport) working out and getting better, taking the time to do the things he is not doing because he is taking the time to play baseball. So I think it is really tough to be at your top, top condition of what you really could be just focusing on one.

“But if you have the ability to play both, you are probably an exceptional athlete anyway.”

Minnesota coach John Anderson said that is the case with the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Decker, who doesn’t start practicing with baseball until football is finished with its bowl game and doesn’t play in the summer leagues that many college baseball players participate in.

“He’s very athletic,” Anderson said. “He gets good jumps and he can outrun the ball. His athleticism allows him to play at a high level out there. He’s an incredible athlete. His baseball development is on the run. We don’t get him in the fall. We don’t get him until January. We get him for two or three weeks of practice then we start playing, so his development is, as we go along, from at-bat to at-bat and play-to-play.”

By his own choice, Decker, a redshirt junior, didn’t play baseball his first two years at Minnesota while he concentrated on “establishing myself on the football field.” He has done that to the point where he is considered one of the top wide receivers for next year’s NFL draft.

Once his football status was established, he decided to play baseball for the 2008 season and “I’m happy I did that,” he said.

Neither Mitchell nor Decker, who was picked in the 38th round of the June draft by Milwaukee last season, participated in spring football. Such is not the case for LSU’s Chad Jones, who left the baseball team during spring football to compete for a starting spot in the Tigers’ secondary. Jones was playing in the outfield before football practice started. When he returned, he settled in a new role as a relief pitcher.