How Michigan's Joey Velazquez balances football and baseball, excels on the diamond
Only the rarest of rare are able to play multiple sports at a level as high as NCAA Division I. But Michigan Wolverines football and baseball junior Joey Velazquez is doing it, and he’s had a big spring.
While he’s spent his entire springs with the baseball team in years past, he went all-in on football this time around, participating in Michigan’s practices and spring game. Though he’s played a limited role on the gridiron during his career to this point — playing in just nine games (mostly on special teams) and recording two tackles and one fumble recovery — the linebacker took a big step forward over the last few months.
Velazquez notched four tackles, including a half-stop for loss, during the Michigan spring game. Head coach Jim Harbaugh said he progressed throughout the 15 practices, which is impressive considering he would join the baseball team when he had spare time.
“Joey V, knocking it out of the park on the baseball field, has made a lot of strides in football,” Harbaugh said on the In The Trenches podcast. “He stayed with football the entire spring. He was completely football all spring, but would sneak over to baseball — get a pitch-hit or game-winning triple in baseball. How hard is that to do? I was never a great hitter.
“But just be all football then over there to baseball when he could. Now he is over there full time with baseball. He bleeds blue — tremendous effort and motor. Finding the ball and a nose for the ball — working on that craft.”
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Velazquez, an outfielder on the diamond, has appeared in 24 games with 17 starts. His .309 batting average is the sixth-best on the team, with 21 hits in 68 at-bats. He’s registered 17 RBI, eight doubles and 14 runs.
In Michigan’s Big Ten Tournament opener against Illinois, Velazquez, who started in left field, came up huge in the eighth inning. With the game tied 4-4, he singled to right field, scoring junior Tito Flores to take a 5-4 lead. Michigan hung on to win, 7-5, and advanced in the winner’s bracket in Omaha. By all accounts, the Maize and Blue need to win the Big Ten Tournament to earn an NCAA Tournament bid.
In an interview with Big Ten Network following the thrilling, late-night victory (first pitch wasn’t until just before midnight), Velazquez explained how he’s able to juggle both football and baseball.
“It’s a lot of time management,” the Michigan standout said. “It takes a lot of discipline, and I couldn’t do it without these guys. They’re so supportive, help me out. [Head] coach [Erik] Bakich and all of them are so understanding of what I’ve got going on. It’s just great to be a part of a great program.”
Velazquez wasn’t on the Michigan baseball team that advanced to the College World Series finals against Vanderbilt in 2019, but he and his teammates are hoping to make another deep run. That hope, of course, is that the Illinois victory sparked the whole thing.
“This is awesome — to get in the winner’s bracket right now and have momentum going into the rest of the week Velazquez said of the Michigan victory,” Velazquez said of the Michigan victory. “The pitchers did a great job putting them down. We just did a good job at the plate. We’ve just got to keep going now.”
