These Stories Never Get Enough Play

Brian Barton


These kinds of stories never get enough run in major news outlets.

Barton plays for the Cardinals, originally from Los Angeles, he attended Loyola Marymount in Louisiana on an academic scholarship. Later, he transfered to the University of Miami. Despite being a good player, he did not get drafted because teams were worried he would go work for Boeing or NASA because he majored in Aerospace Engineering.

Then he got signed by the Indians, and despite putting up good numbers, they didn't protect him in the draft and he went to the Cardinals instead.

The story also covers Barton's travels throughout the world and his desires outside of baseball.

Long story short is, do teams want to pick guys that aren't intelligent because they have no future elsewhere? We complain that professional athletes are idiots. We chastise them when they make mistakes, yet teams do not want to draft the guy that is smart, did well in school, but was also athletic. Barton has a great head on him. Baseball is something that he's good at, but it is not the be all, end all of him. These are (1) the stories that NEED coverage. They show that people can be both smart and athletic. And (2) the sports industry needs to get its head on straight. It's moronic that these are the types of players that have a hard time making it, whereas the guy who blows off school, has athletic talent, but a bad head on his shoulder are getting reamed for doing something dumb. Of course it's going to happen. But don't stand there and scratch your head when it does.