He Loves Baseball, but Football Is His Game--for Now : Texas A&M;: Granger returned to Aggies after trying out for the Olympic baseball team.

The night Jeff Granger pitched against the Cubans in Havana, there were 35,000 fans, including Fidel Castro and dozens of soldiers, gathered at Estadio Latinoamericano.

Unfazed, Granger came out of the bullpen to strike out six in two innings.

Days later, in the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Granger pitched another inning of shutout relief against the Cubans.

But Granger didn’t earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. After a game in Buffalo, N.Y., in early July, Ron Fraser, the U.S. coach, cut him.

Team USA’s loss was Texas A&M;’s gain. The Cubans breezed to Olympic gold, the United States failed to win a medal, and after some hard thinking, Granger returned to the Aggie football team.

Granger, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, will be the starting quarterback against Stanford in the Disneyland Pigskin Classic at 6 tonight at Anaheim Stadium. He said he isn’t certain how well he will play. All that seems to matter is that Granger is part of a team again.

When he quit after last season to concentrate on baseball, he said it was because he wanted to avoid injury. Only after Fraser cut him did Granger learn he could be hurt playing baseball.

“The day I got cut was the first time I’d ever been cut from any club or organization,” Granger said. “(Fraser) brought five of us into an office and said he had to make some cuts.”

With no further explanation, Granger’s Olympic dream was over. Without Barcelona to look forward to, Granger went to his family’s vacation home in East Texas. He spent a week there fishing and thinking about his future.

“There were no newspapers, no TV,” he said. “The main thing was to get away from the hustle and bustle of life.”

After a week, Aggie Coach R.C. Slocum called Granger and asked him to return, adding that Granger would have to earn the starting position. It wouldn’t be his simply for the asking.

“I wasn’t expecting to do anything special,” said Granger, a backup to Bucky Richardson last season. “I wasn’t even on the depth chart. There were five quarterbacks listed, and I wasn’t even sixth.”

Now, Granger appears to have won the position and solved one of the few problems facing Slocum: How to replace Richardson.

Without Granger, Texas A&M; looked strong enough to walk away with the Southwest Conference championship. With him, the Aggies might have enough talent to challenge for a national championship. At least that’s been the talk around Texas this month. But Slocum disagrees.

“Jeff Granger does not solve all our quarterback problems,” he said. “He’s young and intelligent, but he has a lot of learning to do before he becomes a polished college quarterback.”

Last season, Granger played nine games--starting one when Richardson was injured--and completed 22 of 48 passes for 395 yards, with five touchdowns and two interceptions. Slocum called it a promising beginning.

But not long after the Cotton Bowl, Granger said he was quitting football in favor of baseball. He suffered a dislocated right (non-throwing) shoulder during a football game against Baylor, and the injury troubled him.

After posting a 7-4 record with a 3.18 earned-run average and helping the Aggie baseball team to the NCAA playoffs, Granger joined the Olympic team for a series of games. Until the day he was cut, he had no intention of returning to football.

“My first love is baseball, and it probably always will be,” he said.

But being cut made Granger think there was room in his life for football, too.

“I’m delighted to have him back helping us at quarterback,” Slocum said. “In time, he has the potential to be an excellent quarterback.”

Playing baseball against the Cubans certainly didn’t hurt his confidence and poise.

“When you pitch in front of people holding machine guns, in front of 35,000 people who don’t really like you. . . . Well, I’m comfortable in front of people,” he said.

Nevertheless, Granger is feeling the pressure of being the Aggies’ starter.

“Bucky Richardson was a proven leader,” he said. “I feel like I’m No. 1, but I’m trying to learn something new every day. I don’t feel like if I make a mistake I’ll be yanked out of there. I think the coaches will stick with me through thick and thin.”

So for the next few months, Granger will be an Aggie football player. In the spring, he’ll be an Aggie baseball player.

“I’m still looking at baseball,” he said. “I consider myself a baseball player who also plays football. I’d love to be like Deion Sanders. I’d love to be able to choose between the sports.”