As much as Cody Thomas loves football, baseball has always had his heart – NewsOK.com

NORMAN — Cody Thomas leaned against the rail at the top of the dugout steps.

These days, helmet and shoulder pads have been replaced by a baseball cap and cleats. Since the back-up Oklahoma quarterback announced a week ago that he was leaving football to concentrate on baseball, the crunch of tackles has given way to the ping of base hits. 

But as Thomas watched the late innings of an intrasquad scrimmage during Oklahoma’s first official baseball practice of the season, he looked like he belonged. He was quick to applaud good effort. He was first to greet guys coming back to the dugout after a nice hit.

“I love it over here,” he said. “I’ve been having a great time so far.”

He smiled.

“It’s a good change.”

In his first extended interview since he announced his move from football to baseball and left the Sooners extremely thin at quarterback this spring, Thomas indicated that his decision was based on several factors. None had anything to do with being disgruntled about football.

In fact, he said a return to football in the fall is entirely possible.

But he wants to give baseball, his first love, his undivided attention for the first time in college. He wants to see what might be possible.

He understands some people might not get his decision to leave football, especially since he ended the season as the back-up and he is playing behind a starter who suffered a concussion in two of the Sooners’ final three games. Thomas knows what some people are probably thinking.

“I’m a play away,” he said. “My deal is, I’ve been a twisted ankle away for a couple years now, and for whatever reason, it hasn’t really happened.”

Thomas doesn’t feel like walking away from football is walking away from opportunity.

He feels like he’s walking toward one.

***

Cody Thomas flew from Miami to Dallas-Fort Worth the morning after the Orange Bowl on a flight with a bunch of his teammates. He said goodbye at the gate to some who had connecting flights to other cities, then goodbye to others at baggage claim who, like him, had been met by family or friends.

When Thomas parted ways with those guys, he expected to be back with them soon.

Football was still his plan.

But when Thomas got home to Colleyville, the affluent suburb on the northwest side of the Metroplex, he started thinking about the spring. He had changed majors, from business to multi-disciplinary studies with a focus in business, so that he could have some additional flexibility with intersession classes. Thomas did that in hopes of graduating in three years and getting his degree in May.

As he looked at his classes, though, spring football practices were going to interfere with several of the classes he would need to graduate.

That weighed on his mind.

So, too, did the fact that he’d never been fully committed to baseball at any point during his college career. His first spring on campus, Thomas played baseball but also did spring football. His football duties were the priority, and baseball suffered because of it.

“I was really just driving my body into the ground,” he said.

He never had the time — or energy — to focus on his swing, his timing, his skills. 

He never had a chance to be good.

“I wasn’t here enough,” said the outfielder, who appeared in only 14 games two springs ago. “I knew they weren’t going to play me. I just wasn’t here enough, honestly.

“I figure I need to be here if I want to have a shot at it.”

That was his calculation last spring when he left baseball to focus on football. The starting quarterback job was open, so Thomas decided he needed to be totally in on football, completely committed to that sport to have a chance at winning the spot.

That didn’t happen, and even though Thomas rose to the back-up spot by season’s end, he appeared in only three games and attempted just three passes.

He felt like his complete commitment to football hadn’t gotten him anywhere.

“Last year, I gave up baseball to focus on football,” he remembers thinking while he was home after the Orange Bowl, “and that didn’t work out so well.”

That’s when he did something he hadn’t done in almost a year.

He picked up a baseball bat.

***

Cody Thomas went to the batting cages a few times, not only to see how it went but also to see how it felt.

Did playing baseball again feel right?

He hadn’t made any decisions about what he was going to do when he started swinging a bat again. Maybe he’d play baseball and football. Maybe he’d just do baseball. Maybe he’d stick with football. But the more he swung, the more Thomas realized what he wanted to do.

Baseball was the first sport he played. He played it long before he started football. As much as he loves football, baseball has always had his heart.

He approached his parents and told them he was thinking about playing baseball this spring, not football. They were “sort of shocked,” Thomas said, but the more they talked about it and Thomas prayed about it, the more secure he felt.

“I just felt like this was something I wanted to do, something I didn’t want to leave college thinking, ‘Man, I didn’t ever really give baseball a shot,'” Thomas said.

He made up his mind Saturday before classes started again, and Sunday, he went to the football offices to tell the coaches. 

Much like his parents, they were somewhat surprised but nevertheless supportive.

“Right now, the plan is still to come back and be on the football (field),” Thomas said. “I just knew (focusing an entire season on baseball) was something that I needed to do. This was the only gut feeling I had about it all — I need to come out here and see what I can do and see if I can get on the field here.”

***

Nothing has been promised to Cody Thomas.

The baseball team returns only one of its three regular outfielders from last year’s team, but when Sooner coach Pete Hughes welcomed Thomas back to the team, it came with no guarantees.

Thomas understands that.

“I just really think I need a full season under my belt to develop at anything,” he said, “and it just hasn’t happened for me.

“I just really haven’t gotten on the field in anything. I need to give (baseball) a shot and see what happens.”

He has spent the past couple weeks at the baseball complex, hitting, lifting and working out. And he is starting to feel more comfortable, seeing the ball better and getting back his rhythm.

He knows returning to a level that had pro scouts drooling over him in high school will take time — but that’s what he plans to give baseball this spring.

Thomas is excited to see what could happen.

“I definitely am happy where I’m at right now,” he said standing on the field at L. Dale Mitchell Park on a surprisingly sunny and warm winter afternoon. “I’m feeling good about it. That’s what I keep telling people.

“I’m good.”

Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at (405) 475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok or view her personality page at newsok.com/jennicarlson.