When sophomore John Bivens stepped up to the plate yesterday, a chorus of cheers could be detected even from the small crowd that spotted the bleachers at Davenport Field.
In the Virginia baseball team’s 2008-09 debut in a 14-inning exhibition against the Ontario Blue Jays Friday, the Cavaliers rallied from a 3-2 hole to win 6-3. It is the debut of the former Virginia football player Bivens, however, that has garnered the most media attention. After battling knee problems throughout his two-plus years in the football program, Bivens decided to end his injury-plagued stint on the gridiron and turned his sights to the diamond.
The outside linebacker turned left fielder had two at-bats in a designated hitter role; he went 0-1 with a walk and even managed to swipe a base on his still-recovering left knee.
“It takes me a little while to get going,” Bivens said of the knee. “My second [at-bat] my knee was feeling pretty good, so I got a good read and stole the base.”
Bivens’ physical talents reflect exactly what you would expect from an outside linebacker; his combination of power and speed make him a home run threat at the plate and a menace on the bases. As a senior at Prince George High School, Bivens hit .525 with 5 homers and 24 RBI; if it hadn’t been for a shoulder injury, Bivens might have been able to forego college athletics for the MLB.
What happened to the shoulder?
“I don’t really know,” Bivens said. “It just started hurting out of nowhere, I couldn’t really tell you.”
Once he arrived to Charlottesville, it was the knee that ultimately prompted his decision to switch to baseball. Under Virginia coach Al Groh, Bivens redshirted in 2006 and appeared in seven games in 2007, primarily on special teams, before having surgery on his knee in November of that year.
“There was some cartilage damage,” Bivens said. “My kneecap is kind of misaligned a little bit, so the inside part of my knee was worn down to the bone.”
The knee continued to nag him into this football season before he decided that enough was enough.
“I basically told [the football team], this was the best decision for me to make, and they all supported me,” Bivens said. “They’re still my family. I still think very highly of those guys and those coaches over there.”
But, Bivens said, the desire to get on the diamond at Virginia was not a recent development.
“I’ve been out of baseball a long time and probably didn’t go a day without thinking about it,” Bivens said. “I’ve been wanting to get out there, but at the same time I had a 100 percent commitment toward football.”
As a baseball player, the obstacles continue. Bivens had to put on a few pounds when he joined the football team, which may have put additional pressure on his fragile knee. Now, Bivens said he wants to shed that weight and get down to a more manageable 215 pounds; he said he currently weighs in at about 228.
“He wants to and he’ll need to [lose weight] to hopefully take some pressure off that knee,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said.
That challenge comes in addition to shaking off the rust of his two years away from the game.
“John’s a work in progress and he knows that,” O’Connor said. “Obviously he’s a big, strong athlete, and we’ll continue to work with him, and I know that he’s committed to it, and he’s a great kid. The guy’s been away from baseball for two years. He’ll progress as the fall moves along.”
Bivens said his return to the diamond has been going better than one might expect.
“It’s coming back pretty quick,” he said. “My swing is there, but I just got to work on getting in there, getting reps and work on my hand-eye coordination and just get my timing down. My reads are pretty good in the outfield, but I’m really limited because of my knee.”
While Bivens may need to adjust physically to playing baseball, O’Connor said there’s a certain something football players often have that others don’t.
“I love recruiting high school players on our team that were football players,” O’Connor said. “There’s a mental attitude that comes with playing football that I love. Time will tell with John.”
While a football mentality might help him on the diamond, Bivens cannot exactly relive his days as an outside linebacker while basking in the sun in left field. Bivens must miss getting to hit people, right?
“Yeah,” Bivens said with a laugh. “I’m going to miss football. I’m moving on to this new chapter. I’m a baseball player.”
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