Preston Tucker could be leading an entirely different life.
As an unseasonably warm late January sun shines over a slightly renovated McKethan Stadium, Florida’s primary right fielder is prepping for his senior year with a smile and a youthful sense of enjoyment.
“I like it here,” he said. “It’s fun.”
Toward the end of his junior season, there were no guarantees he had any days like this left.
In June, Tucker was drafted in the 16th round of the Major League Baseball first-year player draft.
Even though Baseball America listed him as the draft’s No. 167 overall prospect, the 21-year-old who went undrafted out of Tampa Plant High fell all the way to the Colorado Rockies with pick No. 498.
Still, the opportunity was there: a major-league contract, a chance to capture a lifelong dream.
“It was very tough,” Tucker said of the decision.
“Getting to play for a professional team is always exciting, but getting to play here is pretty cool, too.”
On Aug. 16 — 49 days after watching Florida’s national championship hopes collapse at the hands of South Carolina — he decided to spend the spring of 2012 in Gainesville playing out his senior season instead of crossing the rural environs of the Northwest League, South Atlantic League or the California League on mind-numbing minor league bus rides.
Tucker dragged his decision out to the final day drafted players could sign with an MLB club, and the wait was something Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan had no control over.
“You’ve got to let the process work its way out,” he said. “We certainly hoped he would come back, but it was a process that Preston and his family needed to go through. Lucky enough for us, he came back.”
With Tucker returning, Florida gets the services of one of the best hitters in school history.
He will enter the season needing just seven RBI to pass Brad Wilkerson’s school record of 214.
Tucker led the Gators in RBI (74), runs (55), walks (28) and tied the UF record for doubles (23) as a junior.
However, his 2011 was a microcosm of Florida’s season. After batting .308 during the regular season, Tucker hit .227 at the College World Series, including a 1-for-8 rut as the Gamecocks swept the Gators in the best-of-three finals.
All of this brings up the inevitable question: Would Tucker still be at Florida if the Gators exited Omaha, Neb., as national champions?
“That’s a good question,” Tucker said. “I don’t know.
“It was a big factor when I came back, knowing that we could have done a little bit better and that there were a few things we could have done right that we didn’t do right.”
He also said a college degree and the idea that this year’s preseason No. 1 team could be even better than last year’s preseason No. 1 team played a major role in his decision, but the notion of unfinished business and a dissatisfaction with his draft situation seem to reign supreme.
Regardless of why Tucker came to his final decision, O’Sullivan is happy to look out toward McKethan Stadium’s new right-field videoboard and see a familiar No. 25.
“There was a huge smile on my face (when Tucker decided to return),” he said. “To get back a guy that you can plug into the middle of the order and solidify things, it was certainly a huge lift for us.”
Junior right fielder Preston Tucker (25) decided to return to the Gators after being selected by the Colorado Rockies in June’s MLB draft. He is seven RBI shy of a UF record.
