The football stadium, the one that houses the Jacksonville Jaguars, is just a really long home run away from where Jeff Samardzija stood in a batter's box last week taking his cuts at batting-practice pitching.
The short porch in right field of the cozy, minor-league park here is enticing for any hitter, even a bonus-baby pitcher who isn't known for swinging the bat. But for Samardzija, the view down the right field line was more than just a test of swinging the bat -- he never got one out, by the way -- but a reminder of the agonizing professional decision he made over a year ago, giving up a possible NFL career for the long-and-winding road that is the path to baseball's big leagues.
"Hey,
" a visitor said to him as he exited the batting cage. "You do see that there's a football stadium out there.
"
"Really,
" Samardzija said smiling. "I hadn't noticed.
"
He was kidding, of course. Baseball is how Samardzija makes his living now, pitching for the Double-A Tennessee Smokies in the Chicago Cubs organization. Football is what keeps him in the spotlight and keeps his tough-to-spell name in the news.
Were it not for his successful career as a receiver for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, where he caught 179 passes, Samardzija would just be another big-ticket, minor-league prospect trying to get to the show.
As it is, he's much more. It's too much to say he has a cult following, but let's just say a lot of fans show up in his old Notre Dame jerseys to cheer him on when he pitches. There weren't any in the stands the day I watched him pitch, but this is severe Florida Gators country.
"The Notre Dame fans travel well,
" Samardzija said. "Even in UT (Tennessee) country, they show up. I see them in my jerseys.
"
Samardzija is no dummy. He knows that football has placed him in the spotlight -- and helps keep him there. It might not be his meal ticket anymore, but the reason I am doing a column on him is because of his football background. Fans know his name because of Notre Dame, not some minor-league team that plays minutes away from Neyland Stadium and that sweet southern melody known as Rocky Top.
Knoxville, Tenn., the home of the Smokies, is dead smack in the middle of football country. That helps bring out the curious to see what that boy from Notre Dame is doing on the mound, to find out if he's any good at baseball.
The answer is a resounding yes.
"The guy has never pitched a whole lot in his career,
" Smokies manager Buddy Bailey said. "To be here and to do what he's done so far is an amazing feat and a compliment to his athletic ability, aptitude and desire to be a great player.
"
It has been over a year since Samardzija made his decision to choose baseball over the NFL. The football scouts said he could have been a late first-round pick if he had elected the catch balls instead of throw them. But the Chicago Cubs offered him a five-year contract -- $10 million in guaranteed money -- with a chance for $6 million more in option-year money ... if he gave up football to concentrate on pitching.
That meant giving up first-class NFL travel for long bus rides, grinding through the minor leagues. On the day before this interview, the Smokies took a nine-hour bus ride to get to Jacksonville. They don't always stay in the best of hotels, either, although they were happy to be in a nice Hyatt in Jacksonville. NFL teams always go first class.
That could make a man regret his decision. So I ask Samardzija if he has any.
"Nope,
" he said.
None?
"Nope, none at all,
" he said. "When you make the right decisions for the right reasons there is no doubt. If you're making your decisions because of the way you travel, you're making them for the wrong reasons. I'm happy with what I'm doing. I love football. It just wasn't for me. I wanted to play baseball. It was tough. I don't want to lie. It wasn't an easy decision. But I made the right one.
"
Watching him throw, you know he did. At 6-feet-5, he has the look of an imposing pitcher to face. He has a long-armed delivery and throws a heavy ball that clocks in the low-to-mid 90s. But even that's not good enough to get guys out, even in the minors.
"They'll hit 97 mph if it doesn't move,
" Samardzija said.
That's why he's spent a lot of time working on his other pitches. Bailey said in addition to the fastball, Samardzija has a change and a splitter, and that he's been working long bullpen stretches on improving his slider.
"That's a pitch that's going to get him to the big leagues,
" Bailey said. "In the first couple of starts, he didn't want to throw it. He's been throwing it lately.
"
In six starts, Samardzija is 2-2 with a 3.77 ERA. That's after starting 2-0 and giving up one earned run in his first two starts. The problem lately has been his control. In the past two outings, he has walked six in each game.
In the game I watched him pitch, he gave up four runs in the first inning and continually struggled to get the ball over the plate. But his fastball had plenty of pop when he threw it for strikes.
At Notre Dame, he was on a football scholarship, which took up most of his time. That limited baseball time because there's a 20-hour limit for athletes to compete in NCAA schools. Samardzija pitched 70-75 innings and didn't get a lot of time throwing on the side, unless it came on his own time. That has set him back when compared to some other pitchers on his own team and in the Southern League.
"I'm a 23-year-old with a 20-year-old arm,
" Samardzija said. "My arm is fresh. But I don't have the experience of some of the other guys.
"
The Cubs drafted him in the fifth round of the 2006 draft. After signing a deal that included a $250,000 signing bonus, Samardzija pitched 30 innings for Class A Peoria and Boise before returning to Notre Dame to play football in the fall of 2006. It was after the 2006 football season that baseball became his career path; a $16 million contract was too good to pass up.
In 2007, he pitched for Class A Daytona Beach before going 3-3 for the Smokies last season. There is no rush to get him to the big club. He did pitch three games in spring training for the Cubs and showed well. But they are loaded with big-league pitching. Plus, can you imagine if he had trouble locating the strike zone against the big boys?
It might be a year, maybe two, before he gets called up to the parent club. That's OK for Samardzija, who understands the importance of patience. It helps that he's on a major-league contract as a member of the Cubs' 40-man roster, one that pays him significantly more than more of his teammates.
That could cause resentment in the locker room, but it was quite clear that his teammates respond to him and like him. You could see him joking and laughing with them before he pitched, never displaying the elitist attitude one could expect from a $16 million player among some making $1,500 a month.
How many other Smokies players have their own website, and a damn good one at that? Jeff-Samardzija.com, which is run by his brothers, was launched while he was at Notre Dame. It is a slick site that includes his blog and a place to buy signed Jeff Samardzija merchandise.
"He's a really good guy,
" Bailey said. "He fits in.
"
That's all Samardzija wants. He wants to be one of the guys, playing cards with his teammates on the long road trips, complaining about the movies being shown. They hang out at the park together and after games.
"At the beginning it was touchy,
" Samardzija said. "You have to be a good guy. I'm with a lot of good teammates. We have a great time together. It's all been good. You're here for a reason. You're here to get better. I'm not running around acting like anybody different. We're all trying to move up. I'm just like they are.
"
Derek Landri, who now plays defensive tackle for the Jacksonville Jaguars, was one of his football teammates at Notre Dame. He came over on this day to watch Samardzija pitch, and backed up the idea that he is a good teammate.
"He's a great guy,
" Landri said. "He fits right in. And he could have been a great football player, too.
"
The receiver-needy Jaguars could use him right now. Who wouldn't want a tall receiver who loves going over the middle to make the tough catches?
It's too bad we won't see it anymore. Samardzija can't play football until his baseball contract is up at the earliest. By then, he would be an old man by football standards. That's why it's in his past.
The big question going forward is this: When are the major leagues in his future? And is he a starter or a reliever? With that arm, he could have success at both.
"I don't know what the future holds,
" Samardzija said. "I want to be a starter, but you do what it takes. I'm open for anything. It's funny. It's up to you when you get there and it's not up to you. A lot of it has to do with organizational needs. I just have to keep doing the things I need to make it happen sooner.
"
Bailey, for one, thinks it will happen.
"The train is at the station,
" Bailey said. "How fast it's going to get where it needs to go who knows? But as along as he keep doing what he's doing, moving the train down the tracks, he will get there.
"
When he does, the talk of any regrets will be a thing of the past. The questions about football will stop. Until then, though, playing minor-league baseball in a park just outside an NFL stadium will always spark up the debate. Playing baseball now in a city known for its football passion will, too.
Did he do the right thing giving up football? Only time will tell.
