Kyle Parker, Clemson’s star right fielder, First Round draft pick of the Colorado Rockies, and (most importantly) a Ping!Baseball First Team All-American, had a goal at the beginning of the year: to join the 20-20 club.  Not an outrageous goal for a baseball player, except Parker was talking about home runs…and touchdowns. 

Parker, the starting quarterback for the Clemson Tigers football team, threw for over 2,500 yards and 20 touchdowns, leading the Tigers to a 9-5 record.  In the spring, he went from the gridiron to the park (George Carlin reference there), and proceeded to hit dingers.  On June 7th, he hit his 20th home run of the season against Auburn.  Big deal?  Well, yes it is, because it has never been done before in Division I.  The closest to 20-20 before Parkerwas from Rodney Peete, who threw 21 TD’s for USC in 1987, and then hit 12 home runs for the Trojans the following spring.  Oklahoma State’s Josh Fields threw for 21 TD’s in 2003, and then hit 10 homers in the spring.  Some guy named John Elway hit 9 homers for the Stanford Cardinal in 1982, and then threw for 24 TD’s that next fall.  None of them could do what Parker did this season.

Pre-season goal achieved.  Now, what’s next?  Does Parker come back next year to try to join the 25-25 Club, or does he take his big signing bonus check and try to tear up the South Atlantic League for the Asheville Tourists (the Rockies’ Class A affiliate)?  Parker’s not saying.  He told Ping!Baseball that he wanted to make his decision by June 30th, but he’s not going to rush it.  It’s a tough choice: Big Man on Campus, or Big Man on the Bus driving to Savannah.

Keep an eye on Kyle Parker.  He has the potential to be the next great two-sport professional athlete.  Regardless of his decision, those of us in attendance at the 2010 College World Series can say in the future that we saw Kyle Parker play college ball.