(This is the 13^th in a series of features on Baylor Athletics' 25 for 25, which honors Baylor's top 25 athletes in the 25-year history of the Big 12 Conference (1996-21). Selected by a panel of Baylor experts, the final list was picked from a pool of over 100 candidates that came from all 19 intercollegiate sports that the school offers. Over the next couple of months, two honorees per week will be released and will also be featured during game broadcasts on the Baylor Sports Network from Learfield IMG College.)
 
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
         At 18, just out of Keller High School, Shea Langeliers didn't feel like he was ready to be on his own "for five or six months out of the year, away from family."
         That's why he took his name out of the 2016 MLB Draft, even though the Toronto Blue Jays still took him in the 34^th round with the 1032^nd pick overall.
         "More than the baseball part of it, I felt like I needed to mature as a person and I wasn't ready to go off on my own yet," Langeliers wrote in a May 30, 2019 Champions' TriBUne.
         Steve Langeliers, Shea's dad and part of Baylor's "Man Island" for his son's three seasons with the Bears, said, "I knew he was making the decision because he knows it's the right thing to do, not because he's scared to live on his own. I was really proud of him."
         A two-time All-Big 12 first-team pick and two-time All-American who won the Rawlings/ABCA Gold Glove Award (2018), Langeliers was drafted in the first round by the Atlanta Braves with the ninth overall pick. He was Baylor baseball's 11^th first-round selection and the second-highest behind right-handed pitcher Stan Hilton, who was taken by the Oakland A's with the fifth overall pick in 1983.
         "Everybody says there's not a lot of words to describe it, and they're right," said Shea, a 6-0, 205-pound catcher who hit .289 with 31 home runs and 124 RBI in his three-year career at Baylor. "That's a moment I'll remember for the rest of my life."
         In 2017, he hit .313 with 10 homers and 38 RBI to earn Freshman All-America and second-team All-Big 12 honors. While he had a sophomore slump, hitting .255, Langeliers said it was "one of the greatest things for me to go through that," because "baseball is such a game of failure. Understanding what that's like going through that, and being able to overcome it, is huge."
         Steve said, "Going through success, going through failure, learning how to adapt to the hard times and knowing that he's going to come out in the end, I think that matured him a lot. Now, when he goes through these setbacks – which he knows they're going to come again – he's going to be able to eliminate that in his mind much more quickly and not dwell on that."
         At the end of that sophomore season, Shea was named Co-Most Outstanding Player honors at the Big 12 Tournament, helping the Bears win their first-ever title; and was also all-tournament at the Stanford Regional.
         "When it finally clicked, we felt like we couldn't lose. It was crazy," he said. "When you're playing like that, it feels like all you have to do is just show up with your teammates and go out and play and have fun, and the score's going to end up in your favor every time. That's when baseball is the most fun."
         As a junior, he bounced back at the plate to hit .308 with 10 homers, 42 RBI and a .530 slugging percentage and also threw out 14 of 25 would-be base stealers (56.0) attempts with no errors behind the plate.
         Two days before the MLB Draft, Langeliers had his best performance on the collegiate level, going 5-for-6 with three homers and a mind-boggling 11 RBI, setting NCAA tournament and Baylor single-game records, in a 24-6 win over Omaha in the Los Angeles Regional.
         "Just everything about Baylor – classes, time management, having to balance everything – I feel like I'm a completely different person than I was my senior in high school," he wrote. "Just simple things like being able to take care of myself without my parents being here. I definitely feel like I'm ready at this point in my life."
         After receiving a $4 million signing bonus, Langeliers hit .255 with two homers and 34 RBI in his first year of pro ball with the Rome Braves in the Class A South Atlantic League. He spent the shortened 2020 season at the team's alternative training site and on Monday received a non-roster invite to Major League spring training in preparation for the 2021 season.
         "Once they get to the big leagues, I'll be the first one on the plane to go see them. That's my thing," Baylor coach Steve Rodriguez said when Langeliers and All-American third baseman Davis Wendzel were both taken in the first round of the 2019 MLB Draft. "We score 20 runs, I let a pitcher hit. They get to the big leagues, I will fly there. I want to see them in uniform."
 
Previous:
Bayano Kamani, Men's Track & Field
Jason Jennings, Baseball (1997-99)
Brittney Griner, Women's Basketball (2009-13)
Robert Griffin III, Football (2008-11)
Dawn Greathouse Siergij, Soccer (1997-2000)
Benedikt Dorsch, Men's Tennis (2002-05)
Corey Coleman, Football (2013-15)
Whitney Canion Reichenstein, Softball (2009-14)
Trayvon Bromell, Men's T&F (2014-15)
Stacey Bowers-Smith, Women's T&F (1996-99)
Andrew Billings, Football (2013-15)
Benjamin Becker, Men's Tennis (2001-05)