Pirates sign Penn recruit

Recruit Jonathan Searles will not play football or baseball for the Quakers. Professional baseball or college? Jonathan Searles will do both. On Friday, the incoming freshman signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates that will allow him to attend Penn full-time for two years and play professional baseball in the summer. Under this contract, Searles will report to the Pirates on or around May 15 in each of the next two years, allowing him to finish both his fall and spring semesters at Penn each year. Searles must report to Spring Training on time starting in 2002, however -- meaning he will not be able to attend Penn in the spring. "It's pretty unusual," Pirates scout Dana Brown said. "When you get a kid, draft him and sign him and he's going to go to college, normally he goes to college in the fall only. But because he's an Ivy League student and he's been accepted into the Wharton School of Business, we decided to go ahead and let him go to school as a full-time student." As part of the contract, Searles will receive a $130,000 signing bonus and the Pirates will contribute $140,000 for his education. The total of $270,000 is equivalent to the typical signing bonus for a fourth-round draft pick. Searles was chosen by the Pirates in the eight round. "The Pirates will do anything to sign their first eight or 10 draft choices because they don't have money for free agency," Penn baseball coach Bob Seddon said. "Unfortunately for us, he was drafted by the wrong organization." Searles was originally recruited to play football exclusively for the Quakers, but the Huntington, N.Y., native reconsidered his future in baseball after being discovered by Major League scouts. On April 19, former scout Larry Izzo saw Searles pitch. Three weeks later, Major League Scouting Bureau's Pat Shortt officially scouted the Huntington High School pitcher. And one week after that, 10 major league scouts -- as well as Seddon -- paid Searles a visit. Because the Major League First Year Player Draft was fast approaching and Searles had planned to play football at an Ivy League school, most clubs assumed they could not sign the 6'3'', 195-pound pitcher. "I was aware of his situation," Brown said. "Some of the other scouts sort of backed off because of it, but what I tried to do was get a feel for what the kid wanted to do, and when I talked to Jonathan, it sounded to me like he really wanted to play baseball." And Searles decided that if baseball was the direction he was going to move in, he would play for the Pirates-- not Penn. "If I'm going to play baseball," Searles said. "I'm going to play at the highest level possible." Searles and his uncle Joe Carrizzo put in an estimated 100 hours of research to determine whether the Huntington High School pitcher should sign with the Pirates. "This was well-researched," Carrizzo said. "This was not a rash decision." The decision does not just affect Searles with regard to baseball, however. Under Ivy League rules, if an athlete signs a professional contract in one sport, he is declared ineligible in every other collegiate sport. So, unlike Texas' Ricky Williams -- who played baseball in the Phillies' minor league system -- Searles will not be able to play football at Penn and baseball with the Pirates. "I'm sure I'll miss football when I'm watching the games," Searles said. "But, obviously, some people say I have a future in baseball." None of the Penn football coaches were available for comment, but Carrizzo says they have been supportive of Searles' decision. Searles will report to the Pirates' Rookie League team in Bradenton, Fla., on Wednesday. He is expected to be brought along slowly, progressing from throwing one inning at a time to a ceiling of probably 90 pitches per start. The right-handed pitcher will likely report to Bradenton again next May, possibly moving up to A- or AA-ball by 2001. Brown, who has been a major league scout for six years, believes Searles has a bright major league future ahead of him with three quality pitches. "I think he's probably going to end up with a plus breaking ball, an above-average changeup and at least an average to above-average fastball," Brown said. Athletically, Seddon believes in the pitcher's future -- he actively tried to get Searles to play baseball at Penn after he saw him pitch this spring -- but the Penn coach is not convinced that the contract Searles signed will be as beneficial academically as hoped. "He'll get four semesters, five semesters, but then what?," Seddon said. "When is he ever going to get back again because at that point he has to go to winter ball, he has to go to full summer ball, he may have to go to fall ball. If he does well, he'll never make it back unless he gets cut." His next two years are pretty well scripted, but Searles is still uncertain whether he will play winter baseball or attend school during the fall of 2001. "I'll have three summers of baseball under my belt," Searles said. "Maybe then I'll know where I stand." But Searles knows where he stands for the now -- a pitcher in the summer, a student the rest of the year.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.