The Legend of Danny Goodwin

from The Hardball Times comes the story of a young man who was not just once, but twice, the top pick in the Major League Baseball draft…..(A very interesting read at this time of the MLB Draft.)

Danny Goodwin is hardly a household name, but he remains the only ballplayer to be taken with the first overall pick on two different occasions. In spite of being the most heavily desired amateur player in two separate and distinct drafts, Goodwin never became the star that most talent evaluators had anticipated. Such is the crapshoot that comes with any player who is drafted, no matter how high he is taken and no matter the accompanying level of hype.

In the late 1960s, Goodwin began developing a legendary reputation as a high school ballplayer in Peoria, Illinois. An athletic but powerfully built, left-handed hitting catcher who carried 195 pounds on a 6-foot-1 frame, Goodwin flashed the kind of strength that left fans—and teammates—in awe. Playing in a game for Central High School in late April of 1971, Goodwin delivered the signature moment of his amateur career. Leading off the game, he blasted a gargantuan home run to right-center field, the ball clearing a hill and a driveway before it hit the second deck of a swimming pool that lay well beyond the ballpark’s boundaries. To observers of the blast, the home run not only had stunning length, but remarkable height and hang time. By the time the ball touched down against the pool structure, it had traveled over 400 feet, an unfathomable distance for a high school player swinging a wood bat.

No one happened to film or videotape the Goodwin monstrosity, but the epic home run was not missed by major league eyes. About 20 big league scouts had gathered in Peoria to watch Goodwin that day. The home run, one of nine that he would hit in his senior season, confirmed what most scouts had already suspected: Goodwin, who would hit .488 in 25 games as a senior, would be taken with the first pick of the upcoming June draft.

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