Royce: You’d been called "the next Herschel Walker," and Lou Holtz wanted to have dinner with you. Did you feel extra pressure to back up that decision – like, "I’ve got to succeed at baseball, I’ve got to show people I was not completely foolish?"

George: Yeah. It just makes you that much more excited and more thankful when you’re doing well. You know, all those people didn’t believe that you could do this. You know, you’re doing this for yourself and you want to prove to all these people that you can play this game. And, people don’t understand what you’re going through. They’re looking out for their best interest. And you’ve got to look out for your best interest, and your family’s best interest.

I’m doing something I enjoy doing. I get to see a lot of the world, travel around, meet a lot of neat people, and play a game for a living.

Royce: What was the biggest adjustment coming over to baseball?

George: You just have to get used to doing it everyday.

In a good year, you might play 30 games in high school if you won the state championship. And, even then you don’t play every day.

It’s tough on your body. I think it is one of the most grueling schedules of any sport. We’re on the field at two o'clock or three o'clock for seven o'clock games. You’re playing in the heat. You’re playing in the sun usually.

And you know, throwing a baseball is pretty tough on your body and on your arm, and just doing that every day.

Basketball, and football, it’s a difficult game, but it’s not 160, 150, or 140 games.

Royce: A lot of people perceive baseball as not requiring the same kind of conditioning as football.

George: They are different sports. Baseball is a game of reactions, I think. So, lifting is not a huge part of baseball. There are very few players that are really muscular and really buffed up in baseball.

I was bigger coming out of high school than I am now. The bigger you get, the slower your reflexes are. Hitting-wise and throwing-wise, you have to have a real loose body. So you can’t do too much working out during the season, where you just wear your body down. So all your heavy lifting comes in the off-season. And then you do lifting just to maintain during the season.

Royce: And then what about keeping your cardiovascular system up?

George: Running-wise, same thing. I don’t think you can run a whole bunch in-season because you’ll just wear yourself out. You run your sprints but you take it easy and run mainly just to stay in shape where you don’t pull anything.

My off-season, I do some very hard sprint work, but I don’t think you’ll find a whole bunch of baseball players that do that. They do more of a long-distance train.

Royce: I assume, in the last four years out there playing baseball every day, you’ve had to learn your body better than ever before.

George: Oh, yeah. It wasn’t until just this past year that I could take infield every day. You know, my arm got so sore. I had one of the worst arms you could find coming out of high school that I’ve come across so far.

Royce: What does it mean to have a bad arm? You just don’t throw it hard? Is it technique?

George: The number one thing to getting the arm strong is throwing. I just hadn’t thrown – I hadn’t played a lot of baseball. I wasn’t taught the correct fundamentals growing up. And I’ve gotten much better, and I’m almost to an average arm. And I could end up having an above average arm before it’s over with.

A lot of it has to do with your body type. The long arms and the loose body. I think I’ve always had a tight body. But I think it just came over not throwing, not learning the correct way to throw.

Royce: Do you following your prospect ranking?

George: No, I don’t follow it. Usually, it’s through you guys, with the media coming over and telling me.

Royce: How often do you think about the major leagues? Is that the only goal or is there some other way to measure success for you?

George: I want to play in the major leagues and I want to have a career in the major leagues. I don’t want to get up there just for a few games and call it quits after that.

Sometimes I have a feeling that baseball may not be where I make all my money at, you know. But, right now I really enjoy playing. It’s fun.

Right now, I am probably thinking about the major leagues a little more than I should be. It’s something as a player you don’t have any control over. All I can worry about is going out there and playing hard every day and just going on from there.

Royce: So, when you say you might make money at something else, how do you mean that?

George: I feel baseball gives you a chance to have a lot of connections. I am a believer in that a lot of times it is who you know and being in the right place at the right time.  Something for when the game is over for me that I could go into and take it to another level.

Royce: I think that’s interesting in a prospect of your quality. I don’t think all of them are thinking along those lines. I presume they’re not all thinking, "What will my career be like after baseball?"

George: Well, I think the ones that are smart are, because everyone knows that baseball is just a game, and it’s nothing guaranteed and you can’t play it forever. So, you have to be prepared for when your career is over.

Royce: Is there anything in specific you’re doing to prepare?

George: I definitely plan on going to college. Right now every off-season I’ve gone to play winter ball or instructional ball.

Royce: So, would you say you think about the major leagues daily?