Myers had no doubt about pros

SALISBURY POST

The rumors had already surfaced at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium.

The players had heard about it. Todd Parnell, the Piedmont Boll Weevils general manager had caught wind of it. The area baseball fans were anticipating it.

There was a high school pitcher, Daniel Moore, just up the road a piece at North Rowan, who may have his name called in the 2000 baseball draft. And there’s a chance that could bring a bonus check with a lot of zeroes on it.

Parnell has been through all of this before. He’s seen the bonus babies come and go. Some make it. Some don’t.

The Moore family is adamant in its stance that Daniel, the 6-foot-6 left-hander with the 90 miles-per-hour fastball is going to play in college for the University of North Carolina.

But what if he was offered the big bucks, did take the money and start his professional baseball career?

Parnell pointed out toward Boll Weevil pitcher Brett Myers.

“Think about Daniel Moore next year,” he said, “and that’s what Brett Myers is.”

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Myers was in the same situation (sort of) last year as Moore is now. He was also courted heavily by North Carolina and signed with the University of Florida.

But in his scenario, he wasn’t thinking about college at all.

“Idon’t know if I should say this or not, but signing with a school is bargaining,” said Myers, who signed for $2.3 million as the 12th overall selection. “That’s how you get more money.

“Say they offer that kid a million dollars and he thinks he’s better than a million dollars. You say, ‘No, I’ll pass. I’m going to school.’

“Scouts are like, ‘How bad do we want this kid?’ Maybe they’ll come back and say, ‘We’ll give you $2 million.’ And you’re like, ‘No, I’m going to school.’ And they’re like, ‘How bad do we want him?’

“Once they say this is the final offer, you go to school,” Myers said. “But if you want to play ball, this is the life right here.”

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Most of us can’t even fathom a million dollars, so you can imagine how dazed a high school kid might get over the big numbers. Myers bought himself a BMW but then settled into a routine that did not include bulging pockets. He makes the same wages as everyone else: $850 per month.

“You could spend all (of the bonus) but you wouldn’t have anything if you got hurt,” he said. “All you can do is find the right people to invest it.”

While Moore seems to want to enjoy the college atmosphere, professional baseball was always Myers’ dream. So his father kept up with who got what during Myers’ junior year in high school and the Myers family did its homework.

“Last year, Josh Hamilton (now with the Charleston RiverDogs) got $3.5 million,” noted Myers. “The second got just under that. The third got just under that. It trickled on down.”

And now that he has the money?

“You have to perform,” he said. “You have to go out there with all the confidence in the world that these guys can’t beat you. You’re another player that was given a better opportunity.”

And the highest expectations of his young life.

“It’s asking a lot of a high school kid to go from not a lot of pressure to having major league brass in all the time expecting you to do something because they’ve got so many millions invested in you,” Parnell said. “If Daniel Moore signed, that’s what he would be — an investment.”

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Johnny Podres was at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium Friday night. The money that kids like Myers are offered sometimes boggles his mind.

“Iwon 150 games, four in the World Series,” said the 68-year old, former (Brooklyn and Los Angeles) Dodgers pitcher of his playing days in the ‘50s and ‘60s. “Inever made over $35,000. The highest paid guys on our team were Pee Wee Reese and Duke Snider and they didn’t make more than $42,000.

“Did anybody ever dream salaries would be this high?”

Rod Nichols didn’t. The Weevils pitching coach was drafted in the later rounds and went to the University of New Mexico for three years instead of signing. He was drafted again after his years in college.

And he admits, “When I was at New Mexico, it was probably the best three years of my life.”

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Parnell is quick to point out that there are college education clauses in those bonus packages for high school players. Myers said no thanks and found himself on the road and away from home for the first time. It can be a problem.

“It’s a lot like going to college,” Parnell said, “except you don’t have a lot of people around from the same background. You have to make choices of hanging with the good eggs as opposed to hanging with the bad eggs.”

Myers was sent to Clearwater when he first signed.

“It was tough,” he recalled. “There was nowhere to go and nothing to do. But you’re there to play baseball. You’re getting paid to play a sport.”

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That’s right. And while the adjustments off the field seem huge, they’re nothing compared to hitting the field as a teenage professional.

“In high school,” Myers said, “you worry about velocity because that’s what the scouts are looking at. When you get here, they don’t care about velocity. They want you to hit spots.”

Myers quickly learned that in the pros, you just don’t throw it by people.

“When you’re watching television, Randy Johnson is throwing 98, 99 (mph) and he’s getting bombs hit off him. It doesn’t matter how hard you throw.”

When someone out of the pro game is told that Moore throws 90, he oohs and ahs. When a professional coach is told that, he shrugs.

“Everybody throws 90,” Nichols pointed out, “and this is low-A ball. But the hitters are not very mature also. They make mistakes too.”

Had Moore decided to go pro, he wouldn’t face any lightweights. No High Point Centrals or Lexingtons.

“Everybody he would face 1-through-9 has been the best player in his league,” said Weevils manager Greg Legg.

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Legg has coached the diaper dandies like Brad Baisley, Ryan Madson and Myers.

“All kids are different,” he says.

Myers certainly was. He had been telling people that major league baseball was what he wanted and why wait out three years of college to be drafted again.

“Here’s what I figure,” he said. “I could go to school and play another four years, come out of college at 22 and probably make it to the big leagues in 4-5 years.

“Or I could go ahead and get my pro career started now. Coming out at 18, I’ll be 22, 23 and in the big leagues if I hold up and pitch well.”

Nichols, a former major-league pitcher, probably had the best advice.

“A kid should go to college unless he’s drafted high. It may be the only opportunity he has for that much money.

“But if I’m drafted in the low rounds, there’s no way I’d sign. Three or four years in college with your friends — that’s invaluable.”

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Tommorrow: Ryan Madson signs at 17.