Looking Through Tinted Windows

Here comes the bus carrying the Chattanooga Lookouts. It’s 4 1/2 hours before they will meet the Huntsville Stars. Except for a few concessionaires pushing carts through the concourse and an autograph seeker, there’s no one around as the players file off the bus and into the clubhouse at Joe W. Davis Municipal Stadium in Huntsville, Ala.

“Where’s Drew Henson?” I ask.

“He’s still on the bus,” says a player, gesturing over his shoulder.

It’s hard to see through the tinted windows. Finally, about a minute later, Henson emerges. He looks like a college student, not a minor league baseball player. He’s wearing a Northern Arizona baseball cap backward as he flip-flops by in his thongs clutching a Dean Koontz book. He’s on his way to work in the Class AA Southern League as the hottest prospect of the Cincinnati Reds, who recently acquired him from the Yankees’ AA affiliate in Norwich, Conn., as part of the trade that sent Denny Neagle to New York.

Henson is talking into a super agent-sized cell phone as he approaches. It seems everyone wants to know if he can be all he can be in baseball and in football even though he isn’t devoting himself full-time to either. The spotlight will glare brighter this fall because he will be the starting quarterback at Michigan after waiting two years to get his chance.

Others have tried to juggle the two sports, but none has excelled. Don’t expect it to be different for Henson. Don’t get me wrong--he’ll do well this fall, but he won’t be great. That will come only if he focuses on football.

Henson disagrees. Why? For his first 20-plus years, there has been nothing he couldn’t do. You know the type. First he was king of kickball, then backyard Wiffle Ball champ, Parade All-American quarterback and high school baseball All-American. It’s easy to see why Henson, who signed for $2 million as a third-round pick of the Yankees in 1998, is confident in his abilities to do both. Youth isn’t inhibited by experience.

In 69 games with Class A Tampa last season, Henson hit .280 with 13 homers and 37 RBIs. In 59 games this season with Norwich before the trade, he hit .287 with seven homers and 39 RBIs. However, he struck out 146 times and drew only 46 walks in 128 games over both stints. Still, his 6-4, 218-pound frame oozes promise and potential.

In his first two seasons at Michigan, Henson completed 66-of-135 passes (48.9 percent) for 779 yards with six touchdowns and three interceptions, but he was behind Tom Brady and never got a chance to see extended action. Many thought Henson would unseat Brady, a pedestrian sort who lacked Henson’s resume and whose best trait was that he knew his limitations, for the starting duties last fall. It never happened. Michigan finished 10-2 and capped its season with an overtime victory over Alabama in the Orange Bowl.

That was the first sign that not concentrating on football hurt Henson. With his full attention on football, Henson presumably would have overcome Brady’s edge in experience and won the starting job. Not being on campus to work out with teammates over the summer played a part in holding Henson back. But don’t tell him that.

“I’m there all fall,” Henson says. “I’m there for all winter conditioning, winter workouts, spring practice. The only time I miss is summer workouts, and the coaches aren’t there anyway. The guys aren’t getting any coaching. They’re just working on their own. I know for a fact I haven’t lost anything because of this.”

Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke disagrees. Like Henson, Weinke was a big-time baseball and football prospect coming out of high school. He arrived at Florida State in August 1990 but stayed just a few days before signing a pro baseball contract. Instead of trying to balance both sports, he concentrated on baseball before giving it up and redirecting his focus to football as a 25-year-old in 1997.

“After being here at Florida State and knowing and understanding what I have to do to get ready for a season, I don’t think I would be able to prepare the way I am now if I was playing baseball all summer,” Weinke says. “I say that because I spend a lot of time being here (Tallahassee) around the guys. I think that’s important. Watching film, being in the weight room with the other players. We get together and throw three or four nights a week starting six weeks prior to camp. All of that would be taken away from me if I were playing baseball.

“It may work for Drew. He’s a superb athlete. But championship teams begin being built in the summer.”

The poster boy for trying to have it all and coming up short is Doug Johnson. He tried to balance both sports his first two years at Florida before acquiescing to Steve Spurrier’s wishes and concentrating on football in 1998. A shoulder injury (the result of excessive throwing from playing two sports) that required surgery also played a part in the decision. By then, it was too late. Johnson was plagued by inconsistency the past two years in what was largely an unfulfilled career. There’s no doubt the fact he played baseball caused him to struggle in football. Still, like Henson, no one was going to force his hand.

“The thing about football is, I can come out here and not practice for two months and be able to throw the football,” Johnson said in the spring of 1998. “It’s second nature for me.” But by August 1999, he had changed his tune. “To be quarterback here is a full-time job,” he said. “It’s not something where you can go do something else and still be the guy. You can do that at a lot of other programs, but not here.”

Michigan is one of those programs. TSN picks the Wolverines to finish second in the Big Ten behind Wisconsin. Though the Wolverines’ defense must be tweaked after losing five starters, the offense is ready-made for success. The biggest question is at quarterback. Tell Henson that, and he flashes a quick look at you.

“I don’t see any reason why our offense would come out flat unless there are injuries,” he says. “We have three weeks of two-a-days. We’ll get plenty of work in to where everything is perking. I’m going to get there 10 days before the start of practice (he plans to arrive this week), and I’ll be throwing every day. So, it doesn’t take me more than two or three days to get back into the groove.”

Henson continues his sales pitch, telling you he spent most of his free time this summer whirling through videotape of Michigan’s first four opponents. In his bedroom, with right thumb on the remote, Henson plays, rewinds, plays, pauses, rewinds and plays. Before his eyes dance images of Bowling Green, Rice, UCLA and Illinois.

Though viewing tape is good, it’s no substitute for bonding and sweating with teammates in the Michigan summer sun. The oneness that is developed by exhorting a buddy to get one more rep on the bench press and the eye contact that a good pass-catch duo must develop can’t be cultivated by a part-time partner.

“It was tough not throwing and working with my teammates (over the summer),” says Kenny Kelly, who chose not to return for his junior season at Miami (Fla.) this fall so he could focus on his pro baseball career after balancing both for two years. “That’s a time to develop chemistry. Not only am I not getting used to throwing with them, but they aren’t getting used to catching my passes. Not watching film also hurt, but a player has to do what’s in his heart. For me, it came down to an injury thing. I didn’t want to take that risk in football.”

For now, that’s a risk Henson is willing to accept, but here’s something he may want to ponder. If Henson has a big junior season and leads Michigan to a New Year’s Day bowl, he should ditch baseball and spend his time working toward having a huge senior season. Heck, maybe he should consider declaring for the NFL draft if he ends up being the best quarterback named Drew in the Big Ten this fall.

“There are a lot of options, and that’s one of them,” Henson says. “A lot of things have to fall into place. I’d have to feel I’ve accomplished everything I can at Michigan to walk away. I love playing for Michigan. It would take a lot for me to walk away. It’s a slim option, but it’s one possibility.

“I don’t know where I’ll be (next year). That’s a good question. The plan right now is to do the same thing I’ve done the last two. Report to baseball after school ends in April. Of course, things could change.”

For Henson’s sake, change would be good.