Video: Jaden Agassi highlights and interview
Las Vegas junior in action at the Area Code Games earlier this month.
With two parents that rank among the greatest to ever play their chosen sport, it's no surprise Jaden Agassi has developed into one of the top athletes in the Class of 2020. That baseball is the sport Agassi where excels might raise a few eyebrows.
Ranked the No. 66 prospect in his class by Perfect Game, Agassi is the top-ranked player in the state of Nevada. He recently participated in the Area Code Games Underclass event, which featured the top players in the country from the Classes of 2020 and 2021.
This might seem at odds with the fact that his father, Andre Agassi, is an eight-time Grand Slam winner in tennis and his mother, Steffi Graf, is a 22-time Grand Slam winner. Both are members of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. However, both have been supportive of their son's choice of baseball.
Andre Agassi once said in his own biography that he grew to hate tennis. As a result, neither he nor his wife have pushed the sport on their children.
Jaden Agassi throws during recent Area Code Games.
Photo by Heston Quan
"We never really introduced tennis so much into their lives. They've chosen other things that we were surprised with ... they love their arts and music," he told the Sunday Herald Sun back in 2011.
"Jaden tried different sports, soccer and things and ended up with baseball," he added. "We nurture their desires and interests."
Although Jaden Agassi played briefly at several high schools in the Las Vegas area, he's currently homeschooled. He plays competitive baseball during the summer as a member of the Las Vegas Recruits. Agassi has been one of the team's top players, earning four MVP awards during summer tournament play, according to Perfect Game.
"It's been very important to me, just competing with great coaches and great teammates," Jaden told Perfect Game. "I love the teammate aspect (of baseball) and just having fun with a bunch of your friends."
That might be one reason why the younger Agassi has chosen the ball diamond rather than the tennis hardcourt. His father once described tennis in his autobiography "Open" that tennis was a particularly lonely sport.
"It's lonely … no one to talk to, no one to pass the ball to," he told the Herald Sun.
Agassi, a 6-foot-3, 212-pound pitcher/third baseman, has been making a name for himself on the baseball field, enough so that he has committed to play at the University of Southern California. His fastball has been clocked in the high 80s, but he has developed as a hitter, rapping an RBI double at the Perfect Game Underclass AA Games two weeks ago.
Like her husband, Graf is a familiar face at Jaden's events.
"They're very active. They're keeping us very busy," Graf told Hello Magazine in 2014 about her two children. "(Jaden) plays baseball and it's a lot of fun. He plays more baseball tournament than we used to play tennis tournaments when we were young."
