Four summers ago, I attended a minor league game in Beloit and thought I was seeing a former first round pitcher with a bright future. They guy never made it beyond AA despite a great 4 innings of 9-strikeout ball. During the season I had a couple occasions to speak with him about his future and was impressed by his maturity. As it turns out a handful of position players on that Quad Cities team have made their mark with the Royals.

At the time I enjoyed the experience because I love the game and can usually find something at a minor league game to latch onto. As it turns out, the guy that stepped in for the starting pitcher that day, threw 3 innings of shutout, 5-strikeout ball on route to a River Bandits 10-7 win over the Beloit Snappers.

Four years and four months later, the same pitcher, Will Klein, pitched the last four innings of the 18-inning classic between the Dodgers and Blue Jays in Game 3 of the World Series. As I was discussing the game with a friend the other day, his performance and his route to that point in history came up. No matter how the Series ends, he’ll always have that game and a victory in a World Series game. That’s the stuff every kid dreams of, when they’re playing as a kid. For the record, he’s only 25 years old and looks quite different with his Van Winkle red beard.