Looks like leaving Baseball worked out

ESPN.com has an interesting feature on Nick Francona, son of Red Sox manager Terry Francona and a Penn grad, who is now a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps.

The left-hander pitched for the Quakers, too, before tearing his labrum in his freshman year under coach Bob Seddon and leaving the program altogether under Seddon's succesor, John Cole.

Francona was selected by the Red Sox in the 40th round of the 2004 First-Year Player Draft (in what was likely a courtesy to his father), then went 0-1 with a 5.91 ERA during his one year with the Quakers.

Says ESPN.com:

Any dreams Nick Francona had of playing baseball were set aside after he tore the labrum in his pitching shoulder in his freshman year at Penn. It was, he said, a blessing in disguise, because it allowed him to focus his passion on other things that mattered to him. He'd always been a big reader, he said, with an interest in national security, in part a byproduct of being a sophomore at a boarding school in New Jersey when the planes flew into the Twin Towers, and the parents of some of his classmates were among those who did not survive.
"I never realized how affected I was by it," he said. "But it is the defining event of my generation. You have a choice whether to let it pass you by or take some action and define you. I'm fortunate that I'm at a time in life where I can still have an impact."