The Bookshelf Conversations #169: Jonathan Mayo

As I mention in the Conversation, there’s much more attention paid to the draft from a fan point of view in recent years. Go back a decade, and I can’t remember the whole proceedings being covered by the media from start to finish. Now, it’s almost “appointment television.”

I must admit, I don’t follow the draft that much but Jonathan Mayo is one of the go-to guys for the topic. So who better to pick a lineup of then-amateurs as they wound they way through the scouting and signing processes, fraught with tension and anxiety?

Mayo has been writing for MLB.com since the turn of the (21st) century. We go back a long way, kinda. We first “met” when I was an intrepid reporter for the New Jersey Jewish News. My specialty was sports and as a “local boy” in our coverage area, I did a piece on him following the publication of his first book, Facing Clemens: Hitters on Confronting Baseball’s Most Intimidating Pitcher (2008). He was also an occasional source about Jewish baseball players.

When you think about it, every player chosen in the draft, whether he signs a contract or not, has a story to tell. Of course, only a fraction will make it to the big leagues, and fewer of those will become stars, superstars, and eventual Hall of Famers; most of the athletes in Mayo’s book fall into that last category. It’s odd to think of them as insecure teenagers, wondering about their futures on the diamond. Some are plucked straight after high school, but even those who attend college not only have to contend with the physical challenges, but also the mental and emotional, as many might never have been away from home, having to deal with mundane things like laundry, balancing a bank account or, for those coming from another country, a language barrier.

Personally, my favorites are the guys who were chosen way down, almost as an afterthought, such as Albert Pujols. (Others, like Mike Piazza and Keith Hernandez, who were not featured in the book, went on to fantastic careers, thereby falling into the “lucky” category, as well as “wrong” for the baseball executives who whiffed on them.)