As much as we love our roles as student teachers, we’ve all daydreamed about more glamourous careers as athletes, movie starlets, lion tamers, etc. That’s why it’s pretty remarkable to hear others in those careers that dream of completing a university degree. In honour of opening day and the start of a new baseball season (a pretty big deal around Windsor), we present the case of Jason Castro.

Jason Castro is developing into one of the better catchers in Major League Baseball. Even so, Castro thought it was more important to finish his degree at Stanford Unviersity this offseason. In a recent interview with mlb.com, Castro explained why it was important to complete his studies:

 “We can’t play baseball as long as we’d like,” Castro said. “At some point, I’ll probably put [the degree] to use. Who knows what, but just having it and knowing it’s something done and out of the way, when baseball is over, it’s nice.”

While baseball does have a scholarly component, and while a number of professional baseball players also teach, Castro is a useful reminder of priorities for struggling students and student teachers alike.

And to make sure this post is as scholarly as possible, if you’re unsure how baseball relates to scholarly teaching, read J. E. Bickel’s “Teaching Decision Making With Baseball Examples“.