Beautiful. The field. The playing of the National Anthem. The stuff we took for granted, not knowing what its absence would mean. A year lost.
Minor league baseball has resumed. I feel for the young players, their own dreams put on hold. A year is an eternity to these kids. They play the game with heart and professionalism. One of the plays in Thursday night’s Class A ball game between the Jupiter Hammerheads and the Palm Beach Cardinals involved Jupiter starting pitcher Chris Mokma unleashing a wild pitch with a man on third, his rushing to home to cover it while the catcher caught the ball on a rebound from the backstop, firing it to Mokma, the ball arriving just as the Jupiter player slid into home. It’s one thing for a catcher with his protective gear to tag out a runner from third but the pitcher is naked. Mokma fearlessly dove at the runner for the out. It just demonstrates heart playing the game.
I like to “scout” watching minor league ball – which players might make it all the way to the majors and in a big way. I’ve watched several in this ballpark mature and correctly called their future success, including Giancarlo Stanton (then Mike Stanton). Perhaps I’ve witnessed another Stanton in the making , the Cardinal’s 6’5” third baseman Jordan Walker (only 18 years old!), hitting for power in his first few professional games and a .400 average. He has quick hands at third, a strong arm, and went over the railing for a foul ball (showing heart!) and he will move on to the next level. At 18, the Cards will probably hold him back for a couple of years. But #37 reminds me of a young Stanton.
The “sleeper pick” is the Card’s starting pitcher, John Beller. He was an undrafted free agent out of USC. Just shows what a good scout can uncover. I’m biased when it comes to Beller as he is a lefty (as am I ), and a crafty one. Watching him feeds my old baseball fantasies. He doesn’t have the overpowering fast ball, but his breaking stuff, makes his high 80’s fastball effective. In his nearly 7 innings the other night he threw a 3 hit, 0 run game and with 12 strikeouts, demonstrating the effectiveness of his mixing his fastball with curves, changeups and a slider. At “only” 5’11” he is smaller than most major league pitchers but so was lefty Bobby Schantz at 5’6” from my boyhood years, a pitcher who had great success because of similar tools as Beller. Would be nice to see him go all the way, perhaps a Cinderella story in the making.
Baseball. Another step towards normalcy. Breathe.
