I had the occasion to take in a couple of Atlantic Coast Conference games this weekend at the University of North Carolina’s spanking new Boshamer Stadium. It was my first up-close look at the revamped facility, rebuilt on the site of old Boshamer, and it was impressive, to say the least.
Among the many people I ran into at Friday’s game was an old friend, Wayne Britton, who was the Boston Red Sox scouting director in the Dan Duquette regime. Wayne’s been scouting for 35 years and now works as a cross-checker for the Cincinnati Reds.
It was his first opportunity to see the new facility, as well, and he was similarly impressed. Wayne was a product of the very first baseball draft in 1965, a third baseman from East Carolina taken in the 21st round by the Baltimore Orioles, and he lent the relevant historical perspective as we both marveled at the new park in the context of the progress that baseball has made in North Carolina specifically, and the Carolinas generally, over the past 44 years.
Not only does UNC now have a campus showpiece, but new college stadiums have sprung up all over the Carolinas in recent years, including at East Carolina, Britton’s alma mater. South Carolina’s swanky new digs were also a hot topic among the numerous scouts that gathered for the opener of North Carolina’s three-game set against Clemson.
In a way, the influx of new college stadiums in the Carolinas has become symbolic of the area’s rapidly increasing stature as one of the nation’s baseball hotbeds—at all levels of the game, not just college baseball.
That became graphically evident a day later, at USA Baseball’s new training complex in nearby Cary, when 12 major league scouting directors were among dozens of scouts on hand to take in a one-day event featuring 18 of the top high school teams in North Carolina, along with many of the state’s top prep prospects for the 2009 draft, including Brian Goodwin, Wil Myers and Richie Shaffer, ranked 1-2-3.
Most of the same scouts hung around for another day to watch UNC righthander Matt Harvey, the top college prospect for the 2010 draft, hook up with Clemson lefthander Chris Dwyer, whose rare status as a draft-eligible freshman has made him a curious, if not hot commodity in the early stages of the 2009 college season. It was not lost on anyone that Harvey and Dwyer were the top prep pitching prospects in Connecticut the last two years, and yet were drawn to the Carolinas to play college baseball.
While California, Florida and Texas—all Sun-Belt states with large populations—are still considered the Big Three in terms of developing baseball talent, the Carolinas are making significant headway in closing the gap.
Among college players taken in the last two drafts, North Carolina produced the fourth-most players (94) among all states, South Carolina the fifth-most (69). North Carolina even topped Florida a year ago, 55 to 53.
Though only eight players were drafted directly out of North Carolina high schools in 2008, there were 50 players selected overall who attended Tar Heel high schools. Similarly, there were only five players chosen from South Carolina high schools in last year’s draft, but 24 draft picks had previously attended high schools in the Palmetto state.
The contrast between the number of college and high-school draft selections in the two states is significant, and the ratio of college-to-high school is the greatest of any state. By contrast, neighboring Georgia, perhaps the nation’s fastest-rising producer of baseball talent over the last decade, had 28 high-school draft selections in 2008, and just 26 out of college.
The disparity in the two demographics points out how attractive the Carolinas have become as a college baseball destination for numerous top out-of-state prospects, and also speaks to the unusually high number of colleges in the Carolinas that sponsor baseball at the Division I level—18 in North Carolina, 10 in South Carolina. By contrast, Florida has only 13.
It also suggests the strength of high-school baseball competition in the Carolinas may be undervalued, with numerous prep players going undrafted out of high school only to emerge as college draft picks two, three and four years later.
While 50 players who attended North Carolina high schools were drafted in 2008, that number was just 22 a mere four years earlier. South Carolina has also shown a significant increase, but not as pronounced as its northern neighbor.
Back in 1965, the Carolinas were a virtual baseball wasteland as only 13 players selected in the inaugural draft, including Britton, were products of North Carolina high schools, and just 10 attended high schools in South Carolina. Moreover, only 11 players were drafted from North Carolina colleges that year, a mere five from South Carolina colleges. So from a total of 16 between the two states in 1965, that number jumped to 163 in 2007-2008.
But the baseball landscape in the Carolinas has changed significantly in many other areas through the years, particularly in North Carolina. Though the state is unencumbered by Major League Baseball as the closest big-league city is two states removed, both to the north and south, there is a heavy minor league and college influence as the state boasts 10 minor-league teams—fifth-most nationally—in addition to its 18 Division I teams, fourth most of any state.
The Triangle area of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, in particular, has taken on special significance as a baseball hot spot nationally in recent years as it is the home to USA Baseball and its new national training center; to Baseball America, the nation’s most influential baseball newspaper; and to the Durham Bulls, the nation’s most celebrated minor-league team. The Triangle is also home to three prominent ACC schools in UNC, Duke and North Carolina State, and it is the only region of the country where every level of the minor leagues—from Triple-A, to Double-A, to Class A (both high A and low A), to short-season ball—is within a two-hour car ride.
But the power of baseball in the Carolinas certainly didn’t get any better than Sunday, on a balmy, 75-degree, sun-splashed early-March afternoon in Chapel Hill, in the comfort of a beautiful new facility with the rubber match of a key ACC series as the attraction, with dozens of scouts in attendance to both talk real baseball and add a sense of purpose to what we were watching. There was hardly a second thought given to a basketball game of some impact—both locally and nationally—being played just down the street between arch-rivals North Carolina and Duke.