Congratulations go out to three young African-American baseball players from St. Louis who will get to chase their dreams of becoming professional baseball players.
D.J. Stewart of Westminster Christian, former Hazelwood Central standout Derrik Watson of Murray State, and former Affton standout Anthony Herron of Missouri State were selected in last week’s Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.
Stewart, an Eastern Illinois signee, was taken by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 39th round. Stewart enjoyed a dominant senior season in leading the Wildcats to a third-place finish in the Class 4 state tournament. As a pitcher, Stewart compiled an 8-1 record with 70 strikeouts, only 10 walks and an earned run average of 0.53. He was just as formidable at the plate with a batting average of .409 with 35 runs batted in.
Watson, a 6’2” 175-pound right hand pitcher, was taken by the Colorado Rockies in the 25th round. After graduating from Hazelwood Central, he went on two have two productive years at Southwestern Illinois College before matriculating to Murray State. Watson was an excellent relief pitcher during his two-year career with the Racers, appearing in 33 games and logging 41 innings in relief.
Herron is a 6’1” 210-pound pitcher who was taken by the Chicago White Sox in the 19th round. A 2014 graduate of Affton, Herron started his collegiate career at Jefferson College in Hillsboro where he compiled a 15-4 record with an impressive 219 strikeouts in 149 innings. He was a National Junior College Athletic Association All-Region 16 selection. Herron was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals out of high school before heading to Jefferson College. He was also previously drafted by the New York Mets. He is currently at Missouri State University.
*Celtics-Lakers Rivalry Revisited
The ESPN 30 for 30 series of documentaries has given us some of the greatest television in terms of looking back at sports history. But ESPN’s most recent production, “Best of Enemies” on the history of the Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers rivalry is the best one yet, in my honest opinion. If you are in my age bracket, you lived through that glorious era and were riveted by the greatness of these players and teams. If you are a young person, you need to sit down with your parents at watch it to get an idea of how wonderful these all-time greats are. I’ve never been so excited to watch an ESPN 30 for 30 as I have been watching this one. I watched it three times in two days. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, James Worthy, Dennis Johnson.
Just a few other things to keep in mind while watching this show on how great these teams were: Bob McAdoo was a 6’10” jump shooter who was a three-time NBA scoring champion and certified bucket-getter. He came off the bench for those Lakers’ teams in the ‘80s. When healthy, Bill Walton was one of the best centers who ever played the game. The great ’86 Celtics team brought a healthy Walton off the bench. Mychal Thompson was once the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft. He came off the bench for the Lakers.
Simply amazing stuff.
*Justin Love to Mascoutah
Congratulations to former Saint Louis University basketball standout Justin Love, who was recently named the new head boys’ basketball coach at Mascoutah High (Illinois.). Love has been an assistant coach at Belleville West for the past few years. There is a special place for Love in the hearts of all Billikens’ fans after he led SLU to the NCAA Tournament in 2000. Love led the Billikens on that improbable “Miracle in Memphis” run when they won four games in four days to win the Conference USA Tournament and earn the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. Love joins the fraternity of former SLU players on the sidelines as head coaches with Corey Frazier (John Burroughs), Justin Tatum (CBC) and Erwin Claggett (SLUH).