Dumb Jocks...Or Are They?

355-game winner and future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux has been nicknamed "The Professor" because of his intellect.

Princeton, Stanford, Yale, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Penn, Duke, Notre Dame have many alumni currently in MLB

Nomar Garciaparra graduated from St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, CA as the valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA.

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Craig Breslow graduated from Yale in 2002, having majored in biochemistry and molecular biophysics. His lab partner has done research in Cameroon to try to determine if fruit bats could be carriers of the Ebola virus. What is Craig doing now? Serving as a relief pitcher for the possibly playoff-bound Minnesota Twins and doing a very good job as he has posted a 1.93 ERA this season. People don't often connect intelligence with baseball, but Breslow is just one of many in a class of intelligent baseball players.

He is joined by Padres pitcher Chris Young, Padres centerfielder Will Venable, and Pirates pitcher Ross Ohlendorf, who all went to Princeton. Also in this group are Red Sox shortstop Jed Lowrie, White Sox leftfielder Carlos Quentin, Padres outfielder Jody Gerut, Orioles pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, Indians first baseman Ryan Garko, Phillies utility player Eric Bruntlett, and Yankees starter Mike Mussina, all of whom are Stanford grads.  A few other major leaguers who went to a prestigious school are the Cubs' superutility player Mark DeRosa, who attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Nationals pitcher Jason Bergmann who is an alumnus of Rutgers, and Astros catcher Brad Ausmus who graduated from Dartmouth. There are also Brewers pitcher Dave Bush (Wake Forest) and Indians pitcher Jeremy Sowers (Vanderbilt). Rays outfielder Rocco Baldelli has said that he would have chosen Wake Forest over Princeton if he had not signed with Tampa Bay.

Major League Baseball also has its fair share of high school valedictorians. They include Guthrie, Brewers lefty Chris Capuano, Indians designated hitter Travis Hafner, and Dodgers shortstop Nomar Garciaparra. (Garciaparra had a 4.0 grade point average.) Other players with high GPAs are Bruntlett (3.97), Indians centerfielder Grady Sizemore (3.75), Garko (4.2), and Baldelli (4.25). In addition, Yankees centerfielder Johnny Damon got straight A's in high school.

Physics is more popular than you might think among baseball players. Rockies lefty Jeff Francis majored in it, Baldelli tutored other high schoolers in it, and Orioles reliever Danys Baez studied it in Cuba. Padres third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff took it a step further by studying subatomic physics and saying, "Most people find it boring, but I just like it." Capuano, who also speaks Spanish and Japanese, studied it under a teacher who spoke poor English.

Those aren't the only ones who chose a difficult major. Young majored in politics, Bush in psychology and sociology, Ausmus in government, Sowers in political science, Gerut in history (also wrote a 20-page paper on Soviet patent laws), Garciaparra in business management, Mets reliever Aaron Heilman in management information systems and philosophy (in the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame), other Mets reliever Scott Schoenweis in history (at Duke), Astros outfielder Hunter Pence in finance (was also on Dean's List), Phillies closer Brad Lidge in marketing and economics (says he would be a teacher or architect if not baseball player), Cardinals outfielder Brian Barton in aerospace engineering (was even an intern at Boeing), Marlins leftfielder Josh Willingham in biology (other career he considered was marine bioligist), Rays third baseman Evan Longoria first in kiniesiology then in criminology, Angels setup man Scot Shields in kiniesiology, Astros infielder Geoff Blum in sociology, etc. Mussina and Bruntlett both earned degrees in economics in just three and a half years. Other economics majors include Capuano who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Duke and Red Sox pitcher Paul Byrd.

Other smart players include Blue Jays third baseman Scott Rolen who had read books such as Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and Atlas Shrugged by his sophomore season, Mariners reliever Miguel Batista who has quoted Aristotle on the mound and penned crime novels, Diamondabcks first baseman/pinch hitter Tony Clark who was so good at math in college that he was not required to attend the classes, just take the exams, Angels reliever Darren O'Day who wants to go to medical school and become a surgeon after he retires from baseball, Cubs catcher Geovany Soto who has said he might have been an accountant, and Dodgers pitcher Greg Maddux who has often been called a genius and is known for his computer-like mind, among many others.

I think it is safe to assume Rocks for Jocks was not popular among these jocks.