2021 MLB Regular Season thread

Fun list. My alma mater is on it, but alas I'm not. Career ended during baseball tryouts in 10th grade.

Top 25 High Schools With Most MLB Players | Stadium Talk

 

Wow. Skewed by the Hispanics. But I will yield the floor when the Long Beach guys -- Poin and Song -- chime in.
Can you imagine what tryouts are like at San Pedro de Macoris High? Reminds me of Crenshaw basketball in the day -- the chairs for the reserves went from the scorer's table, all the way to the end of the court and continued up the baseline. And the 25th guy on the roster was certain he was going to make the NBA.

 

To be fair, there are guys who can't crack the starting five for mediocre high school programs all over the country who are convinced they are going to make it to the NBA.

 

Rays-Dodgers on repeat.



2021 Major League Baseball Playoff Odds | Baseball-Reference.com

 

The Moore League has Compton at #10, Lakewood at #8, Long Beach Wilson at #5, and Long Beach Poly at #4. So since the top 2 are in the DR, one league has 4 of the top 8 in America.
I've been to quite a few games. The quality is insane.
The Moore League's quality has gone down a bit in the last decade or so. Kids will go to one of the private schools.

Compton High, along with some of the inner city LA schools, are a relic from the past. They don't produce major league talent any more.

 

I go back to the days when the All-City catcher never got drafted. The way they had the backstops, the kid had never caught a foul popup. The screen came up to nearly over the plate. Earl Battey Jr. at Mount Carmel High, son of the former Twins great, was an example.

 

4 of the 6 are from the Moore League in my hometown and a fifth, Millikan, has had several play in MLB.

Some of my favorite assignments were covering Moore League doubleheaders at Blair Field.

Long Beach is the king of American high school baseball.

 

Long Beach Poly has more NFL players than any other high school in the country as well, IIRC.

 

Four kids from high schools in my old paper's limited circulation area played in MLB in the last 40 years. Not bad for a small county in rain country.

 

Twins second and third, one out. Mitch Garver with a chopper to third. Jose Ramirez throws home to get slowpoke Willians Astudillo. A few less Chipotle bowls and Astudillo probably scores, making Garver a much better player.

 

I covered a playoff game at South Hills High in West Covina, CA in 1990. Years later I ran across the clip and saw that Cory Lidle, Shawn Wooten and Jeremy Giambi all played in that game.