Greatest 21 Days Baseball Profiles

Originally published Oct. 11, 2010 Mickey Morandini had turned down two offers from pro ball by September 1987, opting to stay at Indiana for another year. It was a choice that obviously pleased Indiana head baseball coach Bob Morgan, and Morgan saw big things for the young infielder. "What Mickey needs to do once he signs a contract," Morgan told The Pittsburgh Press , "is to go out and do what he's done all along. He has to hit in the top 10 of his league, steal bases and play with reckless abandon. I think he can be up there in three or four years." The next year, Morandini signed with the Phillies, taken in the fifth round of the draft. He also made his major league debut on the low end of Morgan's time table, just over three years later on Sept. 1, 1990. Morandini, a member of the 1988 Olympic team, made his debut in pro ball the next year, in 1989, playing that year at single-A Spartanburg and Clearwater and AA Reading. For 1990, h...

Originally published Dec. 3, 2010 Ramon Sambo 's days in 1984 saw him getting more hits and his manager was taking notice. Hitting .370, Sambo was leading the league in hitting, The Spartanburg Herald-Journal wrote that June. Spartanburg Suns manager Jay Ward had overseen Sambo's progress the previous year at short-season Bend. Now, managing single-A Spartanburg, Ward told The Herald-Journal he saw positive changes in the young outfielder. "His position at the plate and with the bat is where it needs to be. He's more confident and consistent," Ward told The Herald-Journal . "It only takes him one swing to get back in the groove, whereas last year he would go through a long period where he wasn't swinging right." Sambo was in his third season playing professionally. He went on to play 10 seasons, generally hitting well, and running well. Sambo's hitting was enough for him to make AAA, but not the majors . Signed by the Phillie...

Originally published Nov. 7, 2010 Kelly Heath replaced the Royals' second baseman Frank White in the bottom of the sixth, Kansas City already down 6-0. By the time the inning was out, the Royals were down 8-0, but Heath took part in his first major league double play , serving as the second-base pivot to the action. It was the start of Heath's major league career, a career that, unknown to anyone at the time, would end all of three innings later, Heath getting a single turn at bat . While his major league career would end with that one game and one at bat, Heath's professional career continued for another eight seasons, finally ending after his 1990 campaign and 14 total seasons playing professionally. His brief major league career and lengthy minor league one would be enough for Heath to draw comparisons to two late-80s baseball move icons. Heath could be compared to Field of Dreams' Moonlight Graham for his single at-bat. And he could also ...

Chris Knabenshue had three hits in the previous game for the Charleston Rainbows. But his late miscue in the field meant those didn't matter, The Charleston News and Courier wrote . In this April 1986 game, though, Knabenshoe got one more hit, and one less fielding miscue, going 4-for-4 with a home run in a Charleston win . "I needed a game like this after last night," Knabenshoe told The News and Courier . "I can't remember the last time I was 4-for-4. That's what I was thinking out there. I don't even know if I've ever been 4-for-4." Knabenshoe went on to have shots at similar games at AA and AAA, but he never got a shot to have a game like that in the majors. Knabenshoe, however, has since gone on to a career looking for other players who have shots at playing well in the pros, serving as a scout for the Braves. Knabenshoe's career began in 1985, taken by the Padres in the fifth round of the draft, out of the University of...

A still from Jason Sehorn's interception return in the 2001 playoffs against the Eagles ( NFL.com ) Part 1: Let's Go | Part 2: Special Things | Part 3: Been There Back in junior college, Jason Sehorn 's football coach said something to him that he found interesting: Watch Barry Sanders. Sanders was, by then, already one of the greatest running backs in the game, Sehorn recalled his coach Sonny Stubek telling him, but Sanders never celebrated a run or a touchdown. "Act like you've been there before," Sehorn recalled to The Greatest 21 Days of what his old coach told him. "I kind of took that approach with everything in life," Sehorn added. "There's no sense in celebrating until it's over. When it's all over, and I'm in the lockerroom with my teammates, now we can celebrate. "It's second down and I just made a big ol' tackle, there's still third down," Sehorn said. "There's still a c...

Bowen Field in Bluefield, Va., in 1983 or 1984. Jason Sehorn played at Bowen in 1990 as a member of the Huntington Cubs. ( Vickie Biagini ) Part 1: Let's Go | Part 2: Special Things | Part 3: Good Time Far from the lights of the National Football League and cities like New York and Dallas, Jason Sehorn played the summer of 1990 in the Appalachian Baseball League, in cities like Kingsport, Tenn., Pulaski, Va. and Bluefield, Va. In an echo of things to come, there was also a Bristol. But this wasn't the Bristol of ESPN and Connecticut. This was the Bristol of the mountains Virginia and Tennessee. "You spend time bouncing around from cities like Johnson City, Tenn., Elizabethton, Tenn., just these cool little towns," Sehorn recalled of his time playing for the rookie-level Huntington Cubs. In Huntington, home of Marshall University, the team drew fans, Sehorn recalled, as many as 3,000 in a night. That was fun, he said. "I enjoyed that pa...

Wrigley Field in 1988. Jason Sehorn was once on track to play here. Then he returned to the game he really loved, football. (G21D Photo) Part 1: Let's Go | Part 2: Special Things | Part 3: Good Time Note: Thanks to @JasonSehorn for taking the time to share his story Jason Sehorn watched for his name. The USC safety then saw it, crawling across the screen on ESPN as the 59th overall pick in the 1994 NFL draft. Soon, also, his phone started ringing. On the other end was his new head coach and his new general manager. "It was just a very awesome experience," Sehorn recalled recently to The Greatest 21 Days, "to be that 21-year-old kid sitting in your living room and having these head coaches of NFL teams and the GM telling you 'we just drafted you, you're going to be on a plane headed out to New York.' "I was like, 'this is awesome.'" Nearly five years earlier, Sehorn got another message from another organization. Th...

It was something Terry Clark had always dreamed about, he told reporters afterward . He'd pitched five innings of a major league game, just enough to qualify for a win . He'd also given up just one run. "I told myself 'You got here, did the job, and now sit back and enjoy it,'" Clark told The Associated Press after that July 1988 game. "You're in the minor leagues, doing well and nothing ever happens," Clark added later to The AP , "and you begin to wonder if it will happen or not. I just kept plugging away and swinging away." Clark got there, his first major league start, after a decade spent in the minors. He was originally drafted by the Cardinals in 1979 in the 23rd round. It took him four seasons to get out of single-A , nine seasons to get more than 20 appearances at AAA and 10 seasons to make the majors. Clark went on to a professional career that spanned 21 seasons , six of those with time in the majors . His fir...

Originally published Sept. 18, 2010 After seven seasons in the minor leagues, Jeff Gardner finally got his first look at the majors in September 1991. He played in 13 games for the Mets getting six hits. The experience was everything Gardner expected it to be, he told The Los Angeles Times the next June. "It really is as good as they say," Gardner told The Times . "You get the chartered planes, your bags are waiting for you in your room when you get to the hotel and the per diem is a lot better. "Getting to play up there kind of made it all worth it," Gardner added to The Times . "I wasn't sure if I'd ever get there." Gardner's long trip to the majors began in 1994, signed by the Mets as a free agent. He played the next year at single-A Columbia , hitting .294. He made AA Jackson in 1987. He got a two-game tryout with AAA Tidewater in 1988, getting a triple in one game . By 1989, Gardner was known more his glove than hi...

Kash Beauchamp, far right, and his 2008 Wichita Wingnuts. (Photo Provided) Part 1: Played Hard | Part 2: Big Memory   Part 3: Pretty Simple | Part 4: Fight For In the span of 60 or so seconds, Wichita Wingnuts manager Kash Beauchamp stuck his shoe it in the umpire's face, stuck his armpit in the umpire's face and finally used batting practice doughnuts to suggest the umpire needed glasses. It was a tirade in summer 2008 that cost Beauchamp four games. It was also a tirade, caught on video, that made national news. By that point, Beauchamp had been a manager in independent ball for a decade. And that tirade wasn't his first. "Some of the better ones never made it on video," Beauchamp joked recently to The Greatest 21 Days recently. "I'd say the most famous one is probably about my fifth best one." But there was usually a method to Beauchamp's on-field madness, he said. That was to motivate his team, to defend his deam. "...