SportsLine wire reports
April 15, 1999

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- If you checked your program at the Terrapin-Richmond baseball game Tuesday, junior Tony Jackson is listed as the Terps' No. 27, a 6-foot-1, 202-pound outfielder.

A closer look on the grass behind Shipley Field, however, would reveal the same No. 27 Tony Jackson, the fleet free safety on the Terrapin football team, sneaking a peak through the outfield fence at the game during a spring football practice.

In a 10-7 loss to the Spiders, the baseball Terps probably could have used the bat of Jackson, who is hitting .357 in 16 games this season. But since he is on a football scholarship, spring football practice takes priority over any baseball action, even games. Since spring practice started April 2 until the Black-White Game April 30, Jackson is committed to the football team at least three times a week.

BETWEEN THE FOOTBALL TEAM'S PRACTICES on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, Jackson practices and plays with the baseball team. On the past two Tuesdays, however, Jackson has had football practice while the baseball team had a game.

"It's been a chore, a lot of work," Jackson said of the transition he's made. "I'm going from one practice to another. I don't know that the limit on the amount of practice that athletes are supposed to do a week, but I know I double it."

Jackson, out of Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, is used to playing two sports. He didn't play Terp baseball last season so he could recover from a knee injury and concentrate on academics, but he played four years of both sports at Wilde Lake.

Jackson played for the Columbia Reds in a wooden-bat league near his hometown last summer. He took the 1997 summer off.

"I knew [the rustiness] was going to be a factor," Jackson said. "I'm just using this season to try and get back to that level."

JACKSON SAID RECOVERING THE MECHANICS in his swing was among the hardest things about returning to baseball, but has received much help from baseball coaches Tom Bradley and Kelly Kulina.

"[Bradley and Kulina] have been very good in that respect," Jackson said. "They've been patient, and understand that I was coming from football."

Bradley, meanwhile, realizes the more time the sophomore spends off the diamond, the tougher it will be for him to develop his talents.

"He's got real good tools, he just hasn't played the game enough," Bradley said. "He's got a lot of raw ability but a lot of work to do to refine his skills."

Jackson is thinking of balancing the two sports more next season, saying "maybe next year it will be a little more baseball than football." But for now, Tony Jackson the free safety comes before Tony Jackson the rightfielder.

"[Head coach Ron] Vanderlinden wants him out there, and they're paying the freight on his scholarship, so that's the way it is," Bradley said.

TERP NOTES: The Terps completed their seventh practice Tuesday and are halfway through their 15-practice spring slate.

"I feel like the area we most needed to improve in was our passing game (coming in) and I feel like we have made progress," Vanderlinden said.