Baseball has a wonderful way of connecting communities, states, generations through players, stats, and fun facts. You can be a stranger in a new town and see a baseball picture on a wall in a retail store, point out to the clerk “hey is that Johnny Pesky in that photo?” then a woman comes out from a back office and says “yes and that is my grandfather standing next to him, he played one year with the Sox and Pesky was his best friend on the team.” Or something like that, but seriously, baseball in general has an amazing way of connecting people through a common love of the game.
So, here is one baseball connection that I found interesting this morning. I am from Rhode Island and now reside in Virginia Beach. I lived and worked here in the late 1990s, even played a few years of amateur baseball post-college here. While I was in Virginia Beach, there were two local high school players from the area (Hampton Roads), from the same high school, that got drafted in the very first round of the Major League Baseball Draft. One by the Minnesota Twins (Michael Cuddyer) and the other by my Boston Red Sox (John Curtice). HS Teammates drafted in the 1st Round, wow that was/is impressive! All these years, I told that story to baseball people up north or pretty much any other place and to any person that gave me 5 minutes.
Getting back to this morning and the baseball connection. I looked up on Baseball Almanac (great reference site) players from Virginia Beach who played in Major League Baseball. I saw one that had a connection to my home state, Rhode Island, and one of my favorite teams to watch every summer, The Newport Gulls. According to his bio, this player played his high school baseball at Frank W. Cox High School right here in Virginia Beach. Then, went on to play at University of Virginia. And in the summer of 2010, played in the New England Collegiate Baseball League for the Newport Gulls. Then, a very successful major league career (still active) starting with the Seattle Mariners and now with the Los Angeles Dodgers. That connection – Dodgers utilityman extraordinaire Chris Taylor.
This photo above is located on the wooden panels on the way into the very famous Cardines Field in Newport, RI. This particular photo was taken about 5 years ago and has since been updated with many more Gulls who have made it into the Major Leagues. I walked by this photo 100 times a summer catching games at Cardines. Pretty cool connecting my home state with my new place of residence, all thanks to Chris Taylor, the Gulls, Cox High School, and the great game of baseball.
The Rhiter 