Rarely does a player as highly rated as Jaroncyk simply quit, completely healthy. He played for his parents, and ultimately, he walked away in spite of his father's longtime wishes. There are echoes here of the relationships seen in other sports, of parents pushing for athletic success and children desperate to meet those expectations.

Jaroncyk, a graduate of Orange Glen High School in Escondido, Calif., near San Diego, walked away from the Mets with an $850,000 signing bonus already paid to him and a $100,000 college scholarship fund arranged when he agreed to his baseball contract. ''This is final,'' Jaroncyk said in a phone interview Wednesday.

As of today, the Mets have no plans to ask for a return of the money, a team official said.

It is another disappointment for the Mets, an organization that has experienced frustration with other top draft picks. Pitcher Paul Wilson, their first pick in the 1994 draft, made it to the Mets, but now is slowly and steadily recovering from shoulder surgery. Kirk Presley, another pitcher and the first-round pick in 1993, must soon decide whether he will have more shoulder surgery. Already there are serious questions within the organization about whether outfielder Robert Stratton, the first-round pick from last year, will develop his talent.

Jaroncyk said he began playing baseball at age 5, at the behest of his father, Bill Jaroncyk, who was a defensive back for the University of Southern California football team in 1966 and '67, and later a Navy pilot. Ryan played baseball through Little League, and soccer, and never thought about playing anything else as a child. ''I don't know what I would've done,'' he said. ''I don't want to blame anybody, but I didn't feel I had many choices.''

He stood out on baseball diamonds, as a Little Leaguer, through junior high school, into high school. But he tired of waiting for the next ground ball, tired of waiting for the next at-bat. There was not enough action. He felt like moving around more.