New England Revolution soccer star Taylor Twellman hopes to be named on Tuesday to the USA roster for next month's World Cup in Germany. Twellman, who is the reigning Major League Soccer MVP and who has scored an impressive 65 regular season goals in just 102 MLS games, is widely tipped to be included in coach Bruce Arena's squad after a sustained run of fine form in national team colors this year.
Though he stands on the verge of fulfilling every soccer player's dream, however, the St. Louis native could easily have followed a different path to the top of the sporting tree. An outstanding high school and legion baseball player in his teens, Twellman attracted the attention of a trio of Major League teams and originally went to the University of Maryland, from where he left after two years for a professional soccer career, on the books of the baseball program.
"I played baseball competitively against stronger competition earlier than I did in soccer, just because I had two older cousins and I played up a year," explains Twellman. "It was fun, I grew up in a baseball family. Soccer always was there because of my father but baseball was too. My mom was a baseball lover, [my] grandfather played."
The grandfather that Twellman mentions is Jim Delsing, a veteran of over 10 years in the big leagues in the 1940s and 1950s, during which time he played for the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Athletics. Growing up, Twellman admits that Delsing was a big influence on him but points out that a proliferation of sporting talent in his family, led by his father, Tim, who was a professional soccer player in the North American Soccer League in the 1970s, meant that he had plenty of role models to aspire to.
"You grow up seeing pictures. I describe it as seeing my dad playing [against] Pele and my grandfather playing with Joe DiMaggio. That makes it kind of hard to choose a sport when you're young."
As a junior in high school, Twellman played shortstop and hit .450. A year later, his average climbed to an even more remarkable .517 and professional scouts began to take notice of his consistent hitting. However, while he was tearing it up on the diamond, Twellman was also attracting attention on the soccer field. The pursuit of both sports meant that he was in high demand and, in the end, something had to give.
"What happened was, during the pre-draft camps I was playing soccer in the Under-17 World Championships in Egypt so I missed all of that and was never on the draft board. But three teams called the house and asked if I would do private workouts: the Kansas City Royals, the Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals.
"From there, in my senior season in high school, I needed a break from soccer so I ran with baseball and I dedicated myself to it for the first time ever. In my senior summer I was playing legion baseball and that's when the Royals saw me. I did a private workout and after that they offered me what was probably equivalent to a scholarship."
However, despite having put baseball first for the previous seven months, Twellman remembers that he "didn't think twice" about the offer from the Royals, deciding instead to attempt to play both sports at Maryland, a decision that had a great deal of foundation in the advice he received from those in his family that had played professional sports before him.
"The thing about my grandfather is that you sit there and talk to him and you would have no idea that he played for the Yankees," explains Twellman. "I ask baseball people about him and they say he was a phenomenal athlete. He played at a time when there were no Gold Gloves and he would have won at least one. He was a .989 fielder, which is unbelievable. He was quick and got on base.
"I think that he helped me growing up to respect sports. My grandfather went to every soccer game, he didn't know what it was but he just wanted to go and watch. I remember when I started to concentrate on soccer, he said 'You're still a little young. You are good at both baseball and soccer, so play them both.'"
Playing soccer and baseball at collegiate level never materialized for Twellman, however. An outstanding freshman soccer season saw the young striker score 16 goals and earn a call-up to the USA squad for the Under-20 World Championships in Nigeria. Four goals and a Bronze Boot award later, his baseball career at Maryland was over before it had begun.
Despite leaving baseball behind, Twellman, who remembers playing against Philadelphia Phillies star, Ryan Howard, in his teens, admits that he still loves the sport and remains a huge Cardinals fan. His passion for the game, he believes, was ingrained in him by his family, which taught him the lessons he continues to follow today. Lessons which, he hopes, will stand him in good stead on the world's biggest soccer stage this summer.
"There were times at high school when I might have been lounging around and I came home and it wasn't only my dad, you know, my mom was there too," Twellman said. "Nobody has seen more games than her. I learned to be humble and that, when you do something, do it 100 percent. That was the biggest thing."
Andrew Hush is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
