FSU’s Jameis Winston taking baseball as seriously as football; “I want to be special,” he says

Less than 24 hours after Florida State returned from Southern California with the crystal ball that represents college football’s national title, Seminoles baseball coach Mike Martin arrived for a team meeting and saw a very familiar face.

Sitting in one of the chairs was Jameis Winston, who capped the greatest freshman season in NCAA football history by throwing the championship-clinching touchdown pass against Auburn with 13 seconds left.

“That’s Jameis,” said Martin, whose team is ranked No. 6 in Baseball America’s preseason poll.

“He may be Jameis Winston Heisman Trophy winner, man that was on Letterman, man that can’t walk out of his apartment, man that we are going to have special security for on road trips. But he was there waiting on me for a Wednesday meeting.”

Attending that meeting was Winston’s plan all along, a checklist that read something like: Win the Heisman. Win the national championship. Go undefeated. Play baseball. Win the college World Series.

That’s Winston’s plan … for this year. For the future, it becomes even more ambitious.

“There are things that drive me to do what other people haven’t done,” Winston said Tuesday before baseball practice. “One thing that will always have me motivated is to play both sports professionally.”

Others have done it and two, Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson, share a bond with Winston — Sanders having played at FSU and Jackson being from Winston’s home state of Alabama. But neither was a pitcher or a quarterback. Becoming the first quarterback/pitcher to play in the NFL and the major leagues drives Winston.

“I want to be special,” he said.

Before Winston was Famous Jameis, he was taken in the 15th round of the 2012 baseball draft by the Texas Rangers. Before he threw for 40 touchdowns and more than 4,000 yards for the Seminoles, he hit .235 with a .723 OPS and had two saves and a 3.00 ERA in 27 innings for FSU’s baseball team last year.

On Tuesday, Winston was named to Baseball America’s preseason All-America third team as a utility player.

“Jameis is the kind of guy that whatever he wants to do, run for political office or play pro baseball or whatever, he’s going to do,” Rangers assistant general manager A.J. Preller told the Dallas Morning News last month.

Marlins scouting director Stan Meek said Winston could have been drafted in the top five rounds had he not made it clear he was going to college. Meek said the Marlins liked him as a hitter and a pitcher.

“He has power, he has size … a big strong kid,” Meek said.

Winston’s fastball can reach 95. He has a good slider, and his changeup is improving. Martin is hoping to use him this season as a closer, right fielder and designated hitter.

“You could put him out there on an everyday basis and not miss a beat,” Martin said.

Winston, who will be eligible for the baseball draft again in 2015, has been transitioning this month in the cage and on the mound, although his arm was plenty loose after the football season.

Still, locating a 90 mph fastball is different than tossing the ball up for 6-foot-5 Kelvin Benjamin to pick out of the sky.

“At the end of the day, when you step on the bump (mound) everything has to be a fluid motion, everything has to be perfect, you got to locate,” Winston said. “I don’t really (have) to locate when you got Kelvin Benjamin, Rashad Greene and Kenny Shaw catching passes. It’s all about rhythm and timing with baseball.”

Meek believes the 6-4, 228-pound Winston is athletic and competitive enough to at least give the football/baseball double a good run.

Winston will split time between the gridiron and diamond once spring football starts and could even miss a couple baseball games.

Martin and the Seminoles are gearing up for the sideshow that will come with having the Heisman winner on your team by bringing along their own security for Winston on road trips.