Longoria-- Average to First Round Pick
by Roger Mooney, The Bradenton Herald
June 27, 2006 Ellie Longoria has a word for what happened to her oldest son, and that word is: "Bizarre."
One day, Evan is a high school senior passed over in the baseball draft and she's encouraging him to hold onto his dream of playing Major League Baseball.
"If you work hard," she tells Evan, "If you're driven . . ."
A year later, Evan is a junior college freshman passed over in the baseball draft and Ellie's encouraging him to hold on to his dream of playing Major League Baseball.
"If you work hard," she tells Evan, "If you're driven . . ."
Two years after that pep talk, mom finds herself standing near the batting cage at Tropicana Field with the rest of her family as her son, Evan, wearing a Tampa Bay Devil Rays uniform, takes his cuts with the rest of the Rays. Standing nearby is Rays' executive vice president Andrew Friedman and Rays' scouting director R.J. Harrison, and both are wearing the mouse-eating grins of proud executives who feel they've drafted and signed the best kid in the whole draft.
"So bizarre," Ellie says.
No kidding.
How do you go, in two short years, from someone not even good enough to be selected in the 50th and final round to a guy picked so high only two players were picked higher? Ask Evan Longoria and he begins to sound a lot like his mom.
"A lot of hard work," he said the day after he was drafted earlier this month.
And good coaching, he added.
Mix in parents who allow you to dream, but warn those dreams don't come easy, add a growth sport, a dash of what he called mental maturity and you have Evan Longoria, future third baseman of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Of course, you don't go from being your average, every day, run of the mill, high school baseball player to a guy with a $3 million signing bonus just by twisting off the right cap on a bottle of soda. You need a dose of good fortune along the way, and Longoria's came when he was asked to play shortstop at Rio Hondo Junior College, which isn't far from his home in Downey, Calif.
One year there earned Longoria his only scholarship offer to a four-year school - Long Beach State, where he became All-America.
It certainly helped when Longoria grew into the body of a 6-foot-3, 213-pound prospect who was asked to spend last summer playing in the Cape Cod League. All he did there while playing with the top college prospects in the nation was earn MVP honors and catch the eye of Harrison.
It was also where Longoria realized this idea he had of playing in the big leagues was becoming less dream and more reality.
"You have to be dedicated to what you do," Longoria said. "My coaches always told me to stay committed, and everything will work out."
The top high school players, the ones invited to the showcases and the top summer leagues, dream of becoming the next Albert Pujols, Roger Clemens or Carl Crawford. The rest of the group, the kids who dream big but feel they are going nowhere, should keep dreaming, too.
"At some point," Longoria said, "people have to give you a look."
But only if you work hard, and only if you're driven.
Who knows how far you can climb, right, Ellie? |
