Greatest 21 Days Baseball Profiles

University of Missouri product Scott Black waited deep into the 1990 draft to be taken, but he was taken, The Columbia Daily Tribune wrote , a wait he described the wait as tying his stomach in knots. Having been taken, though, the right-hander also expressed satisfaction that he'd made it through another wait, the one to get his degree, The Daily Tribune wrote . "It's kind of sweet that I was able to get a degree and be able to sign at the same time," Black told The Daily Tribune after his selection. "If baseball doesn't work out as a career, I'll have something to fall back on." As it soon turned out, his baseball career did not work out. He played that single season . He topped out at high-A. Black's career began and ended that year in 1990, taken by the Astros in the 36th round of the draft out of Missouri. At Missouri, he struck out four in 2.2 innings of relief work to pick up a win as a freshman in May 1987. With the Astros, Black play...

Asheville hurler Sam August earned praise from his manager in this August 1987 game, throwing a four-hitter while striking out 10, The Asheville Citizen-Times wrote . "Sam really did a super job tonight," Asheville manager Keith Bodie told The Citizen-Times . "He did a great job mixing up his pitches and staying ahead of the hitters. ... I thought Sam did a great job keeping  their hitters off-balance." For August, he continued to work to keep hitters off-balance over eight pro seasons . He topped out at AA. But balance itself had been a part of August's life before baseball and since - as in balance on a surf board. August's father Robert August became a legendary surfer in the 1960s, featured in the seminal surfing documentary "The Endless Summer." His son has continued the tradition, working with his father's surfboard business and coaching the sport himself. "It just dawned on me one day that I was a surfer," Sam August told T...

Oklahoma high schooler David Richison played baseball the summer of 1987, but he looked ahead to that fall and football season, he told The Tulsa World later. "We were in Woodward playing in the American Legion (state baseball) tournament this summer and some of the guys on the team started telling me I ought to try out for quarterback," Richison told The World . He got the job and took his Spiro High School team to the playoffs, The World wrote .  Richison went on from Sprio to continue in his other sport, baseball, as a pro. His pro baseball career lasted two seasons . He made high-A. Richison's pro career began in 1990, taken by the Astros in the 29th round of the previous year's draft out of Texarkana College. At Spiro, Richison hit a two-run home run in an August 1987 game. That November, quarterback Richison threw four touchdown passes in a game. With the Astros, Richison started in the rookie Gulf Coast League . He got into 25 games and hit .186. He also s...

The Louisville Courier-Journal checked in on Louisville RiverBats veteran top picks in June 2000, among them former Astros first-round pick Tom Nevers . By then, Nevers was in his 11th pro season, having started in 1990. The highest he'd gotten was AAA. "The media and the fans can take it as, 'Oh, you're a first-rounder, you're going to be a star.,'" Nevers told The Courier-Journal then. "But there are no guarantees in this game." Nevers went on to play in two more seasons. The former first rounder never made the majors . Nevers' career began in 1990, taken by the Astros 21st overall out of Edina High School in Minnesota. The Astros picked Nevers to play baseball as he also had hockey options. The Pittsburgh Penguins also selected Nevers in the fifth round of the 1989 NHL draft and he had a scholarship to the University of Minnesota. Ahead of the 1989 NHL draft, Nevers spoke to The Minneapolis Star-Tribune about his options. "I lov...

Texas' Coppell High School lost the game and lost the pitcher The Fort Worth Star-Telegram described as the team's ace, Steve Boatman , then 13-2. Coppell's opponent Carroll High saw three players hit doubles in the 7-2 win, "but the biggest blow" came with a single lined off Boatman's foot, forcing him from the game and possibly braking his ankle, The Star-Telegram wrote . However serious the injury was, Boatman came back and soon turned pro. His pro career ultimately lasted two seasons. He played both in rookie ball. Coppell's career began in 1989, taken by the Astros in the 42nd round of the draft out of Coppell High. At Coppell, Boatman also played on the football team  in 1988. In May 1989 in baseball, Boatman gave up just one hit in a win.  Though drafted in 1989, Coppell didn't hit the field for the Astros until 1990, in the rookie Gulf Coast League . He got into 13 games, starting 10. He went 3-4, with a 3.12 ERA. He then returned tp the GCL...

In previewing the 1991 season, The Asheville Citizen-Times highlighted two of the team's pitchers as control pitchers, then two others, including Fionel Nieves , as having good fastballs. As it soon turned out, would soon show he was not the former .  Control issues would soon mean he would see only three starts. That season, his second as a pro , would also be his last. He topped out at single-A. Nieves' career began in 1990, signed by the Astros two years earlier as a free agent out of his native Dominican Republic . Nieves started with the Astros in the rookie Gulf Coast League . He got 10 outings, 7 starts. He went 2-3, with a 5.52 ERA in 31 innings.  Nieves then moved on to Asheville to start 1991. In his first start in mid-April, he threw three first-inning wild pitches and took the loss. He went 3.1 and gave up four earned in his second start. He then walked six and was pulled in the second inning in his third. By the end of April, Nieves had been sent back to ex...