Jameis Winston says meeting Yankees greats was ‘probably better than winning the national championship’

By Laken Litman   2 hours ago

Winston On Facing Yankees

Florida State pitcher Jameis Winston says he will be a little starstruck when the Seminoles play the Yankees, his favorite team, on Tuesday.

Winston On Facing Yankees

TAMPA, Fla. — In little more than a month, Jameis Winston went from leading the Florida State Seminoles to the NCAA football championship to serving as a fifth-inning defensive replacement in a spring training baseball game against the New York Yankees.

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AP Photo/Chris O’MearaFSU’s Jameis Winston broke his bat  in half before grounding out against the Yankees’ Shane Greene and struck out looking against Bryan Mitchell.

It made no difference to the sparse crowd that turned out at George M. Steinbrenner Field — just about all of it clad in FSU colors — as fans cheered the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback as he jogged out to his position and again as he came to the plate in the top of the sixth inning with the Yankees leading 5-0.

“It was fun man, but I think most of them Florida State fans were Yankees fans, they just had on garnet and gold,” said Winston.

The crowd really went nuts when he broke his bat in half on a foul ball off Shane Greene, the Yankees’ third pitcher of the day. Winston wound up grounding out weakly to second. He received another ovation as he jogged back to the dugout.

In the eighth inning, Winston struck out looking against Bryan Mitchell.

“I gotta get better with the bat,” Winston said. “I been struggling this spring, but that’s baseball man. When you get back in the rhythm, you can go 0-for-2 with two strikeouts, but I only got one, so that’s the only positive I got out of the day.”

Meanwhile, the Yankees got RBI doubles from Dean Anna and John Ryan Murphy and an unusual RBI foul out to the pitcher when Florida State catcher Danny De La Calle left the plate uncovered while chasing Gary Sanchez‘s popup, allowing Murphy to score from third.

Winston led the Seminoles to a 34-31 win over Auburn on Jan. 6 in the BCS title game. He also played in 41 games for the baseball team last year, 22 in the outfield, 10 as a DH and nine as a relief pitcher.

“I’m just 20 years old, man, living my life, and I want to play both (football and baseball) as long as I can,” Winston said. “Like I said, it’s just me having fun with those guys in the clubhouse. I love both of them I got a strong passion for both.

“I probably have more success in football but baseball is a passion of mine and I want to play as long as possible.”