Sunday, June 29, 2008
No. 1 pick just eager to play ball
Aaron McFarling
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PRINCETON, W.Va. -- The Six Million Dollar Man lies on his back down the first-base line, stretching his hamstrings. Athletic tape wraps tightly around his wrists. Batting gloves dangle from his back pockets. He is everything they said he'd be -- young, chiseled, eager.
Ready.
About 20 yards away, near home plate, Princeton Rays general manager Jim Holland presides over the pregame ceremonies. The mayor is here, too, because this is a big deal. Because tonight, they are honoring Harry Finkelman, a local broadcaster who helped lure minor-league baseball to this town two decades ago. Harry delivers a brief and modest speech. The crowd cheers.
The Six Million Dollar Man twitches and bounces in the outfield.
A fan in the right-field bleachers rises and flips on a video camera. He sweeps the lens past the Six Million Dollar Man and over to the dugout, to the real subject of his interest -- his young son, participating in Little League night at the ballpark.
This is where pro baseball begins for the Six Million Dollar Man -- aka Tim Beckham, the first overall pick in the 2008 amateur draft -- and everything about it is beautiful. Instead of a cityscape towering over the outfield fence, we see the golden arches. Instead of a Green Monster or high-tech video screen, we see billboard ads for the carpet outlet and the funeral home and the local classic rock station.
"You're looking at roughly 1,000 people here tonight," says Jed Lockett, who covers the Princeton Rays for the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. "That makes this about as far away from the big time as you can get."
Reason No. 654 to love the game of baseball.
On the same night Derrick Rose became an instant member of the Chicago Bulls, his baseball equivalent was here in Mercer County, lifting the lid on what he hopes will be a Hall of Fame career. Like Rose will soon be, the 18-year-old Beckham is now quite wealthy, having secured a signing bonus of $6.15 million 10 days ago. But unlike Rose, Beckham will have to earn his way to the highest level of the sport, beginning with the Appalachian League.
And the best part? He doesn't mind a bit.
"It's a dream for me, a dream come true," Beckham says. "I'm living it right now."
There were whispers in the stands when he came to bat the first time, but that was all. No special introduction. No standing ovation. Just the polite applause that greets every Rays player here at Hunnicutt Field.
"Go ahead and hit you a home run," one fan said. "Just don't hit my car."
On the second pitch he saw, Beckham sent a chopper up the middle that was fielded by the Burlington second baseman. Beckham, who stole 23 bases at his Georgia high school last season, beat the off-balance throw easily for his first professional hit.
He smiled and bounced on the base. Beckham is your prototypical five-tool player -- hits for average and power well, flashes speed, fields his shortstop position with aplomb and displays a rocket right arm -- but his sixth tool might be the most appealing.
"He's got a great personality," Princeton manager Joe Szekely said. "He's always got a smile on his face. He comes to the ballpark and he wants to work.
"He's just fit right in. It's like he's been here a lot longer."
Despite his talent, Beckham has always been an unassuming player. When he was 12, a youth-league umpire asked Beckham to sign a baseball for him. Young Tim did -- sort of. He didn't have an autograph conceived yet, so he printed his name in block letters.
When the Tampa Bay Rays drafted him June 5, Beckham couldn't wait to sign. That's rare. Typically, high draft choices wait for others to establish the bonus-money market. Beckham just wanted to play.
"I don't really talk about the money," says Beckham, adding that his teammates haven't brought it up, either. "I'm just playing a game I love. Having fun."
And Appalachian League fans should have fun watching him. In the past 15 years, only two No. 1 overall picks have begun their careers in this circuit -- Josh Hamilton (Princeton) in 1999 and Joe Mauer (Elizabethton) in 2001. Both are now major-league stars.
"We get some of the individual clubs' No. 1 draft choices, but to have the No. 1 draft choice overall doesn't happen all that often," Appy League president Lee Landers says. "Especially if they're college kids, they go right to a full-season league, it seems."
But this league looks like a perfect fit for Beckham. Like him, the players at this level are still wide-eyed and hopeful. And Beckham's not even the youngest player on the team. Pitcher Jason McEachern won't turn 18 until October.
"They're not even thinking about moving up right now," Szekely says. "They just want to play. They just want to play with enthusiasm."
Something Beckham doesn't lack. He never stopped moving Thursday while serving as the DH, putting his helmet on three batters ahead of his due-up spot. When Princeton plated two runs in the bottom of the eighth, making his debut a winning one, Beckham was among the first out of the dugout, hopping and shouting and hugging teammates.
Can he keep up this kind of energy level through August?
"Oh, I think the biggest thing is going to be trying to contain it," Szekely says. "He's going 90 miles an hour, and he's going to have to learn how to slow the game down a little bit. He's had nothing but energy since he's been here."
You need energy to climb. And after his 1-for-4 debut, after the sound system blared "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in honor of an 7-6 Princeton win, Beckham acknowledged the challenge ahead.
"It's good pitching," he said. "It's pro ball. I've just got to make the adjustments and hit it. No excuses."
And no frills yet for any of these guys until they earn it. Even for a Six Million Dollar Man.
