CarMike
12-23-2004, 02:25 PM
Tyrel Godwin (http://www.bladenjournal.com/articles/2004/12/23/sports/sports01.txt)
"I'm excited," Godwin said. "This is the opportunity I have been waiting for. I can't wait to get to spring training and show them I'm ready to play in the big leagues."
Godwin has had a unique baseball experience, starting as an eight-year-old playing on a team with 11 and 12 year-old kids. In high school he always put academics ahead of athletics, and he turned down a $1.8 million signing bonus out of high school to attend college. While in college, he played two sports and still earned his degree with honors after only three and one-half years.
The speedster was picked by the New York Yankees in the first round of the 1997 June Amateur Major League Baseball Draft. After a few weeks of negotiations with the Yankees, Godwin decided to accept the prestigious Morehead Scholarship offered him by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He played football and baseball his first two years, and just baseball his third year with the Tar Heels.
A lot of folks in Major League Baseball questioned Godwin's desire to play the sport after he turned down the Yankees offer in order to attend college.
"I wouldn't change a thing if I had to do things all over, "Godwin said. "The decision to turn down the Yankees offer and to go to Carolina has hurt me with some people in baseball, but education has always been very important to me. My education is something that I will always have."
Following his junior year at Carolina, he was selected high in the 2000 draft by the Texas Rangers, but elected not to sign in order to finish his degree. He signed with Toronto after the Blue Jays nabbed him as a third-round pick in 2001.
"I'm excited," Godwin said. "This is the opportunity I have been waiting for. I can't wait to get to spring training and show them I'm ready to play in the big leagues."
Godwin has had a unique baseball experience, starting as an eight-year-old playing on a team with 11 and 12 year-old kids. In high school he always put academics ahead of athletics, and he turned down a $1.8 million signing bonus out of high school to attend college. While in college, he played two sports and still earned his degree with honors after only three and one-half years.
The speedster was picked by the New York Yankees in the first round of the 1997 June Amateur Major League Baseball Draft. After a few weeks of negotiations with the Yankees, Godwin decided to accept the prestigious Morehead Scholarship offered him by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He played football and baseball his first two years, and just baseball his third year with the Tar Heels.
A lot of folks in Major League Baseball questioned Godwin's desire to play the sport after he turned down the Yankees offer in order to attend college.
"I wouldn't change a thing if I had to do things all over, "Godwin said. "The decision to turn down the Yankees offer and to go to Carolina has hurt me with some people in baseball, but education has always been very important to me. My education is something that I will always have."
Following his junior year at Carolina, he was selected high in the 2000 draft by the Texas Rangers, but elected not to sign in order to finish his degree. He signed with Toronto after the Blue Jays nabbed him as a third-round pick in 2001.