The Shortest Career?

[Simon_Nesbit]

Hard to see a shorter career than this one.

Fictional, 40 team league, fantasy draft.

Xavier Nesbit (renamed) #1 draft pick, 24yo SP, 90/77/93 rating, 96/89/93 talent. 9 Velocity, 92 endurance. Abolute lock, guaranteed star, best pitcher in the league, and by quite some margin. Signed to a 74 million/5 year contact.

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It's opening day in Chicago, and Nesbit is starting after mountains of press around his selection, ability and star-factor. A sell-out crowd of 49986 fans are here to watch him debut, against the highly fancied New York, who have four of the leagues' biggest hitters.

A hush falls over the crowd as he takes to the mound, nervous in anticipation and excitement. Is this the piece that will take them to glory? Will this arm turn into a 20-, or even 25- game winner? Many commentators say it's a possibility that he could join the greats of the game, perhaps as soon as this season.

At-Bat is Frank McGowry, drafted in the 3rd round (84th overall) - a big-hitting lefty, who has a tendency to swing too hard, too early.

The pitch....

McGowry is struck on the side of the head, knocking his helmet clean off, and he collapses to the ground, motionless. The stunned crowd, hushed from the first pitch are now silent. Chicago's catcher, Martin Banner waves frantically for help.

With all the attention in the batters box, no-one had noticed the mound, where Nesbit was on his haunches, head down, holding his right shoulder.

Eventually an ambulance arrives to remove McGowry from the field. As if in a Hollywood movie, McGowry recovers his senses enough to raise a fist to the crowd as he is raised into the back of the ambulance. A rousing cheer erupts over the field as the ambulance is applauded on it's way under the stadium.

By this time, a couple of Chicago players had wandered over to Xavier, now sitting on the pitcher's mound. Not exactly the way he wanted to start his career, but at least the commentators would have something to talk about.

Xavier had spent plenty of time warming up before the game, as it was quite a cool night, but even so, his shoulder was a little stiff and sore as the teams began to return to their fielding positions.

The next batter up was Dennis Jones - an OBP specialist drafted in the 11th round (404th overall). A pinch runner was on 1st, and Nesbit watched him closely as he prepared to pitch.

The speedgun registered just 62mph. The ball looped harmlessly, well wide of it's intended target. Nesbit screamed in agony. A searing heat seemingly took over his entire body, as his right arm hung limp at the side of his body. He'd never been hurt badly before pitching, and didn't really know what was wrong.

Xavier saw his coach, Ruben Martinez heading out - and was then assisted from the field. After preliminary examination from the club doctors, he too was taken to hospital - coincidentally ending up in the same emergency room as McGowry.

Chicago won the game 3-2, thanks to a 7th inning RBI double from Banner, but the back page would have bigger things to report.

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Frank McGowry had a broken cheekbone and fracture eye-socket, and would miss the next three months recovering.

Xavier Nesbit had torn his rotator cuff muscle, and some minor nerve damage. His career was almost certainly over.

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[frankduffy]

Unfortunately, I do not have a game story as you magnificentally did...

Orel Hershiser, San Diego Padres, 0.1 IP 0 H 0 ER 0 BB 1 K - CEI.
Nice way to lose a #3 pick.

[Left-handed Badger]

I had a lower round pick (4th) in his first pro start in A ball. Pitch 1 inning+ before a career ender.

[kq76]

You're a great writer, Simon. I loved this post of yours, and your Decisions You Regret post. I'm going to go see what other gems you've posted.. Keep it up.