One Casey just wasn't good enough for the Red Sox. On Thursday, with the 30th overall pick in the first round of the First-Year Player Draft, the Sox selected 18 year-old shortstop/pitcher dual threat Casey Kelly out of Sarasota, Florida. And with a name like Casey Patrick Kelly, I have a feeliing he'll fit in just fine in Boston.

Casey comes from a baseball-crazy family. Casey's dad Pat Kelly was drafted by the Angels to play catcher, and got a cup of coffee playing for the Blue Jays for three games in 1980 (funnily enough, all 2 of his dad's major league hits came off of Bob Stanley against the Sox at Fenway Park). His dad also took over as bench coach for the Cincinnati Reds last season after managing the Reds' GCL team. Contrary to what some (erroneous) reports have stated, Casey's dad is NOT the Pat Kelly who played for the Yankees. Casey's brother Chris Kelly plays for the Rays organization, his uncle Mike Kelly played for the Blue Jays organization, and his cousin Dustin Kelly played for the Red Sox organization.

The Sox are banking that all those baseball ties will propel Casey to sign on the dotted line... because there is another suitor for his athletic affections. Casey also signed a Letter of Intent to play football (QB) for the University of Tennessee earlier this year -- and now he has a big decision to make. But it sounds like he's leaning towards the Sox. Per MLB:

We spent some time talking to the kid," said general manager Theo Epstein. "First of all, he's a great kid, from a great baseball family. You could hear the passion in his voice when he talks about baseball, and we wouldn't have taken him if we didn't feel in our hearts that he wanted to go out and play professional ball."

There is still a contract to be worked out. But all things being equal, Kelly sounded like a man who was ready to start a baseball career.

"It's definitely a tough decision," said Kelly. "I haven't talked to anybody at Tennessee yet. Out of respect to them, we'll just have to see how the summer goes and see how everything plays out with this."

Kelly was then asked if he saw his future in professional baseball or pro football.

"Right now, I'd have to say baseball," he said. "It's kind of up for grabs. I don't really know the answer to that yet. We'll see how the summer plays out."

And an even more encouraging quote from here, albeit hinging on the Sox' decision to play him at SS or P:

"They picked me in the first round so I'll probably be wearing a Red Sox uniform," the Sarasota (Fla.) High School star said just minutes after the pick was announced.

Kelly said Boston has already told his family that it is comfortable with a set of financial parameters that was floated to baseball executives before the draft.

"They knew the price was going to be a little higher because of football," the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Kelly said.

Kelly signed with Tennessee to play quarterback in February. Barring an unforeseen snag in the negotiations, his arrival in Knoxville seems very unlikely.

A possible snag could arise from Kelly's future position, claimed Pat Kelly, Casey's father and a minor league manager.

"They (the Red Sox) like him better as a pitcher but they want to give him a chance to play shortstop," Pat Kelly said. "He doesn't want to pitch. I think that's going to be a big part of the negotiations."

One thing's for sure - his family was excited enough about the draft to celebrate in that time-honored baseball tradition... a pie to the face. And they videotaped it. And posted the video to the internet. Awesome.

The first clip is the video of Casey watching when his selection was announced (cover your ears- there's a woman on the clip with a high-pitched squeal-scream), and the clip of the pie job is after the jump.

Hat tip to Red Sox Monster for the video!