So, I don’t often stray from matters of writing or faith, but something happened yesterday that I can’t let pass without comment. I have a former student, an ’09 graduate of the school where I teach, who was taken 9th overall last year in the MLB draft by the Detroit Tigers. His name is Jacob Turner, picture below.
Well, yesterday, March 10th, he pitched the 4th inning for the Tigers in their spring training game against the defending world champion Yankees. He struck out the first batter he faced, then hit the next guy with a pitch. He went on to walk two more guys, but he didn’t give up any runs because he struck out two other batters. The last of those? Yankee first baseman, Mark Teixiera, who went down swinging.
Now I know that there’s a certain advantage pitchers have when a batter has never faced them before, so this isn’t to say Jacob is the next coming of Bob Gibson. At the same time, Jacob is 18 years old. Last year he was pitching to 15-18 year old high school players, and yesterday he struck out one of the best hitters in major league baseball.
That’s pretty cool.
First time commenter! Jacob and his brother were in my Sunday School class for a year or so, and I’ve been paying close attention to him these last few weeks. Awesome.
BTW, I actually have a cousin at Westminster: Max Piazza. Weird.
Dear Mr. Graham,
You have been very good at continuing to give us posts and answering our comments (you made a resolution to that effect this new year). Wanted to encourage you and am hoping you are gonna write as much on your book as on your blog.
Please keep writing (this is nicer than pestering you, isn’t it?),
AtN (not attention:, but Allen the Nerd, tee hee too hoo)
Thanks Allen – trying to chip away at the new book, bit by bit…