The MLB draft is Tuesday, with the #1 pick looking like it will be Andrew Miller, a left handed pitcher from the University of North Carolina. Not to much longer afterwards, his rotation-mate, Daniel Bard...a righty....will be selected.
Oh, and those Tar Heels are in the Super Regionals against Alabama beginning Friday.
While UNC has been a very decent baseball program....they aren't in the class, historically, as fellow ACCers Florida State, Miami, Clemson or Georgia Tech. But this won't be the first time a Carolina player was the #1 pick in the draft.
That would be BJ Surhoff back in 1985. Yep, Surhoff was the top player selected in the 1985 MLB draft by the Milwaukee Brewers. Also in the draft...another Carolina player was selected. Walt Weiss, who would go on to win Rookie of the Year honors with the Oakland Athletics, was taken with the #11 pick.
While BJ wasn't a bust....well, he wasn't as good as some of the guys drafted behind him. The #2 pick in that draft was some guy named Will Clark. The #4 pick was Barry Larkin.
The #6 pick was Barry Bonds.
Still, in the unillustrious history of Carolina players in the majors [does Brian Roberts count? His dad was the head coach and he did play there for a minute], it's not a bad thing to have a couple of Heels as the top pick.
Heck, in the history of North Carolina basketball.....two Heels have been selected 1st overall. James Worthy in 1982 and Brad Daugherty in 1986. Sure, Heels have been drafted very early before [Al Wood, Marvin Williams, Michael Jordan, Vince Carter, Sam Perkins, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Raymond Felton]...butonly two have gone #1.
No football players have gone #1....but a pair have gone #2. Lawrence Taylor and Julius Peppers. Those guys were pretty good.
1 comment:
If you came out of 1985 with a BJ, you were doing better than most.
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