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Eric Decker walks slowly across the Metrodome turf and takes his place in the batter’s box. He stands at the plate, aluminum bat cocked and ready, knees slightly bent. At this intrasquad practice for the University of Minnesota baseball team, Decker takes a waist-high pitch and drills it into the gap in deep center field. With his eye trained on the outfielder, Decker rounds first and then picks up speed, sprinting toward second with a graceful stride that is remarkably similar to Joe DiMaggio’s tiptoed lope.

Gopher football fans are to be forgiven for wondering what Decker is doing in the Metrodome in February, wielding a baseball bat and a left fielder’s glove in place of a football helmet and pads. Decker is a standout wide receiver on the Gopher football squad and last year was one of the bright spots in an otherwise dismal season. On the gridiron, Decker broke a school record with 67 receptions, was second in the Big Ten in receiving yards with 909, and scored in seven games. But the sophomore from Cold Spring, Minnesota, hasn’t always focused on football. At Rocori High School he wore two hats—or rather, he wore a cap and a helmet—as one of the state’s most prominent baseball and football players. Now he’s playing both again, this time for the Golden Gophers.

“I had friends back home, ex-Gophers, who told me that I absolutely had to try out for the baseball team,” Decker says. “I thought, here’s an opportunity I can’t pass up.” In fact, according to Gopher baseball coach John Anderson (B.S. ’77), if Decker hadn’t received a football scholarship, he would have been given one to play for the baseball team. “I am better in football,” Decker says. “But when I got here I talked to [head football coach Tim] Brewster about playing baseball. We agreed I would focus on football at first. After my success last season, I decided to try out for baseball. You only get so many opportunities in life to do this, so I figured, why not? There’s nothing to lose.”

Nothing, perhaps, except free time. At the beginning of spring semester, Decker—a business and marketing major who was an Academic all–Big Ten last season—was balancing a busy class schedule with practices for both football and baseball. He would run with the football team at 7 a.m., head off to classes until noon, lift weights with the football team, and then drive to the Metrodome for three hours of baseball practice. After an evening class, Decker would go home and eat dinner, do homework, and sleep. The next day he’d start all over again.

By mid-semester that grueling regimen lightened up. Decker eliminated the football workouts, and he and Brewster are so confident in his abilities that he skipped spring football practice altogether. “Now I’m smart enough to focus only on baseball,” he says with a laugh.

While there have been many two-sport athletes in Gopher history, few possess Decker’s combination of speed, quickness, and arm strength. Perhaps the most apt comparison might be with the late Paul Giel (B.A. ’55), who excelled in football and baseball. Giel pitched for the Gophers from 1952 to 1954, led the team in numerous pitching categories, and went on to throw in the major leagues for six seasons. On the football field he was even better, as a star halfback who was runner-up in Heisman Trophy voting in 1953. Both his football and baseball uniform numbers have been retired at the U.

Of course, Decker has a long way to go before anyone retires his uniform, and he admits that his baseball skills are a bit rusty. He worked out with the Gophers in preseason practice his freshman year, in 2006, and spent the summer of 2007 playing with the Cold Spring Springers, an amateur club from his hometown that has earned seven state tournament titles. Otherwise, it’s been all football. But Anderson is excited about Decker’s potential. “Somebody who’s as talented athletically as Eric has the skill to make it,” Anderson says. “He’s got a great throwing arm, running speed, and bat speed. His hardest adjustment is going to be in the hitting part of the game.”

Decker agrees. The quality of pitching he has encountered in the college ranks surpasses anything he’s seen before and has made hitting, well, a whole new ballgame. “You think, ‘God, how am I going to hit these curveballs?’ ” he says. “Just seeing this stuff has been a big part of getting back into it.”

Decker’s baseball debut comes at a time when the Gophers are trying to fill the shoes of 17 players who played on last year’s Big Ten runner-up team. Anderson thinks last season was a breakout year for the Big Ten conference, with Ohio State, Michigan, and Minnesota all advancing to the NCAA tournament. Decker is one of a handful of talented newcomers vying for playing time in the outfield. Matt Nohelty, who last year earned a spot on the first all–Big Ten team, will hold down center field, but right and left field are wide open.

Anderson plans to start Decker in the eighth or ninth spot in the batting order and protect him from powerful left-handed pitching for now, at least until they can build up his confidence. “The only way he’s going to learn is to play. So we’re going to get him out there,” Anderson says. Best of all, Decker is eager to learn. “He’s hungry,” Anderson says. “He’s proven himself in football, so it’s not like he has to do it again. He’s been well-received, the kids like him, and he doesn’t want to be treated differently.”

Decker knows that if he’s to make a mark on Gopher baseball, as he has football, he’ll need to work hard and be patient. When pressed about whether he plans to move on to the next level and play professionally in either sport, Decker shrugs. “I want to keep an open mind. I do want to stay involved with sports and get to that highest level, but if that doesn’t happen I’d like to manage or coach.” With that he stares out on the diamond to watch his teammates take batting practice and smiles. “Whatever comes my way, if I like it I’ll take it. Right now I’m just enjoying my college life.”

Peter Schilling Jr. is a freelance writer and author of the novel The End of Baseball, released in April.