He was just 18 when the Yankees came calling.
Three years later, it was the Florida Marlins offering $200,000.
No thanks, and no again, replied Josh Hochgesang. Going to Stanford was something he'd always wanted to do -- and he hasn't looked back. "It's been a really productive four years of my life," says Hochgesang, now a senior.
The slugging third baseman is leading No. 3 Stanford to its best start since 1985. He could be a poster boy for the advantages of putting off a pro career in favor of college ball. Players at Stanford get a chance to mature, play top-quality baseball and, of course, receive an education. That's the argument coach Mark Marquess has been making to high school players and their parents with increasing success in the last five years.
It wasn't always easy. From 1978 to 1994, Stanford lost 13 high school stars -- players who had committed to the Farm but never enrolled, succumbing instead to the lure of big money from the majors. The 1991 season was especially tough. Three high school pitchers -- including current San Francisco Giants ace Shawn Estes -- changed their minds and signed with the majors. "It devastated us," says Marquess, '69, now in his 23rd season as coach. Under NCAA rules, he has exactly 11.7 scholarships to divide among his top prospects each year. If an athlete bails at the last minute, there are few quality prospects left to recruit.
Pro teams have increased the stakes in the last five years. Signing bonuses that once averaged $200,000 now routinely run to $1 million. Still, many players opt for Stanford. Pitcher Chad Hutchinson, '99, turned down $1.5 million from the Atlanta Braves to come to Stanford (where he also had a role as starting quarterback on the football team). Freshman Brian Seger said no to a $1 million offer from the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Marquess is nabbing such players with a new strategy: determining which players not to offer scholarships. When he and assistant coach Dean Stotz go into the home of a top prospect, they have a good idea if the majors are interested in him. Then they fight back by focusing on what the student and his parents want: education, not cash. "If I'm convinced a kid is going to go for the money, I don't recruit him," Marquess says. "I can't take a chance." Since 1994, Stanford hasn't lost a single high school recruit to the majors.
Hochgesang is the kind of player Marquess favors. He is both a serious athlete and a dedicated student (with a 4.0 high school grade-point average). Marquess tells the parents of such young men that taking a major league offer has lifelong consequences. "Only 1 percent of kids who sign out of high school eventually get a college degree." he says. "I ask the parents: do you want him in a sheltered college environment and playing top-level baseball, or do you want him riding buses in the minor leagues?"
Once they arrive on the Farm, players are ineligible for the major league draft for the next three years. After their junior year, pro teams often come calling. Last June, Marquess lost six players, three of whom were his starting pitchers, including Hutchinson (now with a St. Louis Cardinals farm club) and Jeff Austin (now with the Kansas City Royals organization). In 1997, five Cardinal players were drafted. The year before that, nine got the call.
While they're here, Marquess pushes his players to take extra classes to improve their graduation chances. "Athletics doesn't get in the way," says Hochgesang, who, like many of his teammates, completed his degree in fewer than four years. "You feel better about yourself if you're always on your toes, and that's what Stanford makes you do."
Not that he's given up on the field of dreams. By midseason, the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Hochgesang had hit six home runs for a career total of 35 -- enough to place him eighth on Stanford's list of all-time home-run hitters. With 46 doubles, he was seventh on that Stanford all-time list.
"I'm confident I'll be a major league baseball player," he says. "Then I'll finish that and start the next portion of my life."
