Feller and other players formed a team, the Oakviews, consisting of semi-pro and high school ballplayers.
By November, he was scouring sports magazine ads for showcase camps, where high school ballplayers take the field for college recruiters.
By 8 a.m., the field was jammed with 200 high school ballplayers, each eager to impress the 20 college recruiters -- representing Yale, Harvard, University of Virginia, Notre Dame, and others -- sitting in plastic folding chairs around the diamonds.
He was a standout high-school ballplayer in Melbourne, Florida, where he still lives.
Wagner isn't going to suppress his candor just as Randolph, very much an old-school ballplayer, has not fully adapted to managing a team filled with players whose personalities stand in stark contrast to those of his teammates in the Yankees' heyday.
Now 6-foot-3 6-foot-3 6-foot-3ernelys, and7-year-old junior who plays center field, is listed in the high school rankings as the fastest ballplayer in the country, and the top player in New York State.
Does he come from a tradition of minimizing the importance of age because school is not important for ballplayers who hope to be signed at 16?" If George Steinbrenner signs Danny Almonte in two years, will that mean his dad did the right thing for his boy?
Back in the '40s when I was in grade school, I was the absolute worst ballplayer at Overland Avenue Elementary and Pasteur/Palms Jr. High.
Meanwhile, grade school coaches watching those same young ballplayers yo-yo downcourt openly curse his name.
