A little less than a month from now, a few hundred high school and college baseball players will get that call.
That call from a Major League Baseball club saying “son, we have selected you in the amateur draft and would like to sign you to a professional contract.”
How great must that feel!
I wonder if Quintavious Drains will get that call.
Who’s Quintavious Drains, you ask. That’s what I said when I saw his name while reading potential Red Sox draft picks at baseballamerica.com. I needed to know more about a guy with a name like that!
Come to find out, Quintavious Drains is his name, really. And throwing knuckleballs is his game. He throws them pretty good too!
He’s a senior righthander for the Tigers of Jackson State University in Mississippi. JSU is heading to the SWAC conference tournament this week as a No. 1 seed. Quintavious Drains has 10 wins and 8 complete games — both numbers lead the nation in Division I. He’s pitched 102 innings and has a 2.81 ERA.
Drains says he learned how to throw a knuckleball when he was 12. His best friend taught him and when that friend died in a car accident he decided to stick with the pitch as a tribute to him.
Nice.
So, from the school that produced Walter Patyon…and Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd…comes
Quintavious Drains.
I doubt Jackson State will make it to the College World Series in Omaha. But I hope they do.
The SWAC baseball tournament starts Wednesday.
The MLB amateur draft begins June 4th.
ITEMS FROM THE DUFFEL BAG:
– Speaking of baseball names…How about Shyler Scates, an Erskine Academy pitcher. His coach says in the last 42 innings of pitching for Scates over the past two years he’s walked just one batter. Wow!
– And how about that pitching line of Bangor’s Curtis Worcester vs Edward Little. A 7-inning complete game 2-hitter — 76 pitches thrown, of which only 14 were balls. Zero 3-ball counts. 2 2-ball counts. Wow again!
– By the way, get ready for Red Sox pitchers to step to the plate — interleague plays starts Friday night in Philly. (Adrian Gonzalez bring your outfielder’s glove.)
– Back to the upcoming MLB draft…the Red Sox have the 24th, 31st and 37th picks…and for the first time in years the Sox actually pick ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays.
An MCI prep basketball memory — I was at the old MCI gym one day, waiting to interview Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. Coach K was there looking at a power forward player named Perry Carter. I’ve never seen a guy so intense looking at a player. He never took his eye off the pickup game going on. Every play. Every move. His hand on his jaw. Coach K watched and watched and watched. By the way, Carter ended up at Ohio State.
– Most interesting quote of the week — C’s backup guard Keyon Dooling on Rajon Rondo. “I think sometimes his basketball intellect is overshadowed by some of his moments. He’s the smartest player in our game”.
– Tell me NHL commissioner Gary Bettman isn’t on pins and needles. His Stanley Cup championship series could be the NY Rangers vs the LA Kings…but it could be Phoenix vs New Jersey. Sleep well commish.
– To my fellow Gordon Lightfoot fans who were at his soldout Collins Center concert Saturday night…travel safe this week on that Carefree Highway, knowing The Watchman’s Gone!
– Great week of live PBP baseball on AM620/WZON this week…Bucksport vs. Orono, Hermon vs. John Bapst, Oxford Hills vs. Bangor!
