JAMESTOWN — Ever since he was a 4-year-old T-ball player, not much taller than a Louisville Slugger, Ryan Hendricks has dreamed of playing major-league baseball.

Now, at 16, as Ryan embarks on his junior year at Ragsdale High School and begins weighing the possibility of playing collegiate ball, there’s a major obstacle standing in his way — an obstacle you probably wouldn’t expect to interfere with a potential baseball career.

Classical music.

You see, Ryan has two dreams — to play professional baseball, and to become a concert pianist. And the problem — if you can call it a problem — is that he excels at both passions, and he has to decide which dream means the most to him.

“Baseball is extremely competitive, but so is music,” the Jamestown teenager says. “If I want to play baseball in college, as much time as I’m putting into baseball right now, there’s a guy somewhere putting that much work into the piano and learning his craft, and it’s just getting unrealistic for me to pursue them both.”

This wouldn’t have been a problem if Ryan had followed his original instincts regarding the piano, recalls his mother, Amanda Hendricks.

“In second grade, I signed him up for lessons (at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School), and he didn’t like it,” she says. “He did it for a year or so, but he didn’t like it.”

Ryan remembers those days well.

“Yeah, I think I was just too young to appreciate it,” he says. “You know, some people start at that age and they love it, but I didn’t — it just didn’t click with me.”

Meanwhile, Ryan was playing several sports, but it became clear early on that baseball was his favorite — and the one he excelled at most, especially as a power hitter and pitcher. The other sports gradually fell by the wayside, and he devoted most of his time and attention to baseball.

When he was 13 and playing for the High Point Pony Baseball Club, Ryan qualified for Major League Baseball’s Junior Home Run Derby. He was one of only eight young sluggers from across the country who earned the right to compete in MLB’s 14-and-under division of the homer-hitting competition during the 2022 All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles.

“That was a big moment for me,” Ryan says. “I had to beat out a lot of kids just to get there.”

By that time, Ryan had begun taking piano lessons again, and this time he was quickly developing a passion for the instrument, especially classical music.

“I listen to all kinds of music,” Ryan says, “but when I’m actually playing the piano, I love classical music. I love Chopin. I love Franz Liszt. I love Beethoven. I’m a classical guy on the piano, for sure.”

And while he can read music, Ryan also has the ability to play by ear.

“He has a very sharp ear,” says his piano instructor, Paul Failla of Jamestown Piano Studio. “One lesson, he came in playing a passage from Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto that he had just learned by ear. There were glitches, but still, just amazing. I don’t know many people with the ability to do this, let alone a child.”

Failla believes his student must make a decision about whether to pursue baseball or music wholeheartedly.

“He’s now at a crossroads,” he says. “Both baseball and classical piano are extraordinarily competitive, and the chance of making a living from either is quite low — he knows this. He can’t go full force with both and expect good results.”

For now, Ryan has settled on baseball as his primary pursuit. He played for Ragsdale last year as a sophomore and expects a big season this spring as a junior. From there, he’ll see if the college scouts come calling.

“We’ve kind of ultimately decided that I’m going to go for baseball until baseball’s not an option anymore, and then if piano is still a possibility, then I’ll go for that,” Ryan says.

“It’s like … (Failla) told me — there’s only so long that you can play baseball. When you’re 40, your body can’t do that anymore at a high level. But even at 40, you can still play the piano to the best of your ability. You’ve got a time limit for baseball, but you’ve got forever for piano.”