#baseball draft

It’s been fun for me to peruse the Norfolk newspaper – that sadly isn’t located in Norfolk anymore as you might know – this week. Burdened with next-to no live sports to report on, the section for the last little while has turned to its archives for stories to run under a “Our Greatest Hits” banner. A few pieces I did years ago, quite a few years actually, have been pulled from the cobwebs this week, timed with the June 10 major league baseball draft.

I don’t look back a great deal, but reading the stories again was a cool reminder of what a ridiculously fertile baseball breeding ground I was fortunate to write about, particularly in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, where year-round travel ball clubs first took root — to huge effect — in Tidewater.

The stories I’ve linked to below chronicle a staggering blip in time when first-round draft picks seemed to grow on trees on the so-called Southside, and even national reporters showed up to try to figure out what the heck was going on.

B.J. Upton, the second overall draft pick in 2002, and his brother Justin, the first Virginian taken No. 1 three years later. A 1 and a 2, raised under the same roof, the highest-drafted siblings in draft history. Think about that.

Ryan Zimmerman, (also linked above) picked No. 4 just a few minutes after Justin Upton 15 years ago. Think about that.

Mike Cuddyer and John Curtice, just the second pair of high-school teammates (Great Bridge) drafted in the first round, in 1997. Think about that. 

In between them, in 2001, another first-rounder cropped up out of Chesapeake’s Hickory High. Fellow named David Wright. (No link – but man, what a great player and charming guy.)

Incredible.

All of the above went on to log long big-league careers – Justin Upton and Zimmerman are still going, assuming baseball gets off its road to implosion — except for Curtice, a pitcher who barely got off the ground in pro ball because of arm trouble. The paper also re-ran his “whatever happened to” story from 2013 here.

Tidewater remains a strong baseball area, but for nearly a decade, a couple of decades ago, it was as hot as any California, Florida or Texas hotbed. 

Hotbeds, two-sport stars and MLB bloodlines

Whether one is just interested for some kind of sports or is just good at it, or passionate about it altogether, there is always a need of better knowledge about the sport and its history and other things that brings it to one of the most important sectors of life. Baseball, the national sports of United states is one of the most favourite of the sports for most people. Even I am one of the fans of baseball who is more than just a player. In a way I am just little bit more crazy about this sport. It is quite well known a fact that more somebody knows about something, the more they get into it. This is isn’t a rule as it is quite understandable and everyone does it just that way. The best way to know deeper about baseball is through playing it hard and through baseball books. Baseball Almanac offers the best of the baseball books which are perhaps the limited versions.

Baseball Almanac offers more than just baseball books, it is more of a well-organized platform where one can find all shapes of libraries with almost unlimited ranges of books on baseball. These baseball library shelves are all rowed with baseball books from all genres. These can be fiction, stories on baseball, the baseball documentaries and much more. It’s just a kind of heaven I can say for a baseball fan like me who is a good reader as well. The whole lot of knowledge that can be seen at a glance over here in Baseball Almanac is simply incredible. One of the main reasons why Baseball Almanac has gained such a popularity over the market and particularly the baseball fans is that one can find almost everything in here and that too in quite an organized manner.

Be it the baseball books, or the baseball records, one cannot just complain that something is missed out. Baseball Almanac is a great insight into the entire world of Baseball. Any good reader, especially the people who are bit inclined towards sports would definitely be interested in the books here. The kind of collection of baseball books that one gets here are just awesome and too engaging. Now one might think as it is quite human to think so, that what is it that about baseball that one has to read about baseball in these long literatures? Common man! Sports and literature together? This sounds just so boring! Well this is the reaction anyone would be showing on knowing about these baseball books for the very first time. But of course as it can be seen, the literature of baseball is just so voluminous. And there are just so many people who are holding the readership for these books.

Whom would you point to first when it comes to the  best ever baseball player? Isn’t it like asking who is the uber of baseball players? Now this actually shouldn’t be the way of questioning as these days almost everyone is called the uber of everything. Who knows if I would be called the user of humans tomorrow? Quite possible! Well jokes apart, when it comes to the finest of the baseball players that are taken into account, perhaps Roberto Clemente is one of the best known professional baseball player. This Spanish iconic baseball player has spent eighteen major league baseball seasons while playing in the national league. The baseball teams hold enormous respect for this guy who was an all-star continuously for 12 seasons of baseball matches. He also holds the recognition of being the first latin American and Caribbean player to be enshrined. This was by the virtue that he was inducted into the National baseball hall of fame in 1973. Being involved in the major baseball leagues, this iconic sportsperson was popularly referred to as Bob Clemente by announcers and most sportswriters.

Baseball alamanac being an all-round information provider for the sport, of course can’t leave behind who is referred to as a legend in the baseball sports, Roberto Clemente. Now it’s not just that this offers the basic information on him. It details all the information about him and lets the users know about what all Clemente went through in his sports career and that too all information are segregated as per the specific dates. So one can get the complete detailed information about him. Clemente, popularly known as Bob Clemente is the one of the most inspiring sportsperson for everyone. He acts as a complete ideal for everyone whether someone is just a beginner in the game, someone who has undergone good years of experience and also for those little champs who are yet to hit the baseball ground. Beginning from the personal life of Clemente to his field stats, if everything is just made available on a single page, its none other than baseball alamanac. Isn’t it simply amazing?

Amaro speaks (sort of) on Phillies draft pick controversy

The Philadelphia Phillies were embroiled in some controversy this week that had nothing to do with signing a 35-year-old-and-up ballplayer to a new contract. Let’s see if we can sum up this controversy quickly and succinctly for the uninitiated.

In a story first reported by Aaron Fitt for Baseball America, 2013 fifth-round pick Ben Wetzler decided to spurn the Phillies’ contract offer and return…