>I was pretty oblivious to the distinction between me and
>somebody like that until I was in later high-school. And then
>I was in denial about it.

I was used to being the best or second-best player on every team I'd ever been on, and if you ranked that 14/15 YO squad 1-10, I'd be like a 9, 9.5. But Al came along and was about a 30. Just worlds beyond.

Even a couple of years later, playing Legion ball and coming up against guys who had already been drafted or had a year of D1 under their belt, never saw that kind of talent disparity again. Really wish I knew why he fizzled out.

>Regarding the "might have killed a kid" pitcher, we had one of
>those too. He actually played in the NBA for a little while,
>Lonny Baxter. But he only pitched for our little league team
>in very rare appearances, one of which made a kid cry and
>refuse to finish the at bat.

That's both hilarious and sad. I remember when Nunnally was also around 14-15, he'd get brought in to finish up the 7th in blowouts, that kind of thing. And if an opposing hitter at least got the bat on the ball, even a weak dribbler to first, everybody would cheer like he'd homered—both teams, parents...damn triumph of the underdog.

Interestingly, 10-15 years ago when that big MiLB steroid bust went down, he was one of the players who tested positive and got suspended. Think he then played in Japan for a bit, and last I knew was a hitting coach in the Red Sox system.

Amazing how long ago that was now...man does time pass....