Greatest 21 Days Baseball Profiles

In his first major league start, Randy Nosek didn't do too bad. He went 4.2 innings, giving up two earned runs . Though he also walked eight. The same couldn't be said for his second start five days later. "It was a nightmare," Nosek told UPI after that June 1, 1989 contest . Nosek gave up six earned runs and didn't make it out of the first inning. "You don't think about it happening to you. But they tell me it happens to the best of them. I have to take it as a learning experience." Nosek made the majors in 1989, four years after the Tigers selected the high schooler in the first round with the 26th pick of the 1985 draft . But Nosek would never fulfill the expectations of that first-round status. After that second start, Nosek only got three more major league appearances, all three the next year in 1990, ending his big league career with five games played . After being selected by the Tigers, Nosek almost didn't sign. He turned down...

Drafted straight out of high school, Chris Johnson started his professional career thinking he was better than he was, he admitted to The Milwaukee Journal in July 1990. But, in his fourth professional season, Johnson relayed he then had a better perspective. "I couldn't blow past guys like I used to in high school," Johnson told The Journal of his transition from high school to the minors. "I kind of wondered why Milwaukee drafted me, and I'm sure the first couple of years they were wondering the same thing." "They've given me the best opportunity that anybody ever has," Johnson added to The Journal , "and it was just time for me to do something, especially with the way they've been patient with me." Johnson had regained his confidence by that time. Johnson spoke after going 12-2 over the first three months of the season, with a 2.34 ERA. But, while Johnson had his confidence back, he also would never make the majors . ...