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BASEBALL is known for its flags, pennants and banners. On Tuesday, the latter proved symbolic for West Virginia, because the Mountain State had a banner day in the sport. Nitro High's J.R. Bradley and West Virginia University's Jedd Gyorko were both selected in the second round of Major League Baseball's amateur draft, making it the best showing from state talent since 2002. Back then, Nick Swisher, a Parkersburg product, was drafted in the first round, No. 16 overall, by the Oakland Athletics, and Elkins product Kyle Pawelczyk was taken in the third round by Anaheim. Both of those guys, though, played college ball out of state the year of the draft. So one might have to go back to 1999, when Jefferson County's Josh Cenate was taken in the first round by Baltimore, Greenbrier East's Seth McClung was taken in the fifth round by Tampa Bay and Nitro's J.R. House went in the fifth round to Pittsburgh to find such a Mountain State haul. Locally, of course, Bradley proved to be the toast of the Kanawha Valley on Tuesday. After leading his team to the state championship Saturday, he was grabbed by the Arizona Diamondbacks as the 56th overall pick. "He's been everything and all that,'' said fired-up Nitro coach Steve Pritchard. "He's a once-in-a-lifetime player - on and off the field. "I had some buddies I played with in college come to the state tournament with their kids and J.R. took time with all of them. He leads by example. He's a guy that doesn't come around often.'' Also, odds are, he won't be around for the North Carolina State Wolfpack, which signed the pitcher to a letter of intent. Bradley said he has agent Joe Bick of Cincinnati lined up. It's a good thing because the Diamondbacks will have representatives in town by the end of the week to negotiate, because there's money to be made. Although it seems most teams like to pay slightly north of the $500,000 range for a second-round pick, the New York Mets paid second-rounder Steven Matz $895,000 last year. Baltimore gave shortstop Mychal Givens $800,000. Kansas City paid third-rounder Will Myers $2 million and fourth-rounder Chris Dwyer $1.45 million. The Orioles gave 22nd-round pick Cameron Coffey $990,000 when negotiations seemed to break down. Anyway, it's reason for the state to celebrate. Bradley is the highest state player drafted since Hurricane and Winthrop standout Daniel Carte was taken by Colorado with the fourth pick of the second round (52nd overall) in the 2005 draft. (He signed, by the way, for $670,000.) The highest draft pick ever straight from a West Virginia high school, though, is Cenate. The left-handed pitcher was selected by the Baltimore Orioles with the 34th overall pick in 1999. (That was right before he struck out 19 St. Albans batters in a Class AAA state semifinal game.) The top overall pick from the Mountain State? Chris Enochs of Newell, who also pitched for WVU. He was taken in the first round at No. 11 by the Oakland Athletics in 1997. Others to note are Swisher's father, Steve Swisher, who was selected in the first round at No. 21 in 1973 by the Chicago White Sox. Buffalo High's Anthony Whittington was taken in the second round (60th overall) by Anaheim in 2003.
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OK, I'm reading your mind. So, Mitch, you're thinking in that little thinky voice, what happened to those guys? I'm here to serve. Of course, Nick Swisher is living the dream with the World Champion New York Yankees. He's played for Oakland, the White Sox and, now, the Yanks. Overall, he owns a .249 career batting average with 142 career homers. This season, though, he was batting .305 before Tuesday night's game with nine homers and 31 RBIs. Perhaps more impressively, he's dating actress Joanna Garcia. Swisher's father, Steve, who played at Ohio University, had a successful MLB career that stretched from 1974-82. In 1976, he was an all-star for the Chicago Cubs. The catcher's career totals: a .216 batting average with 20 homers and 124 RBI. McClung earned a nice living with a six-year career. His career ERA was 5.46 and his record was 26-34, but he pitched as a starter and reliever in a whopping 177 games with Tampa Bay and Milwaukee. Last season, he was 3-3 with a 4.94 ERA in 41 games for the Brewers. He was released by Florida at the start of this season after signing a minor league contract. House, of course, remains in baseball as a member of the Class AAA Buffalo Bisons. Of late, he's picked up this season's batting average and is at .262 with a homer. The rest of the state's high draft picks didn't exactly have storybook careers. Enochs, the first-round pick who signed for $1.2 million, spent nine seasons pitching in the minor leagues. He had a career 4.91 earned run average and a 5.17 ERA in his last season with Indianapolis, a Pittsburgh Pirate affiliate. His career record was 45-52. He allowed an average of 10.2 hits per nine innings. Cenate never made the bigs either. He pitched in Bluefield of the Appalachian League and had a 1-5 record with a 4.46 ERA before shoulder problems hit. He did not play for three seasons. The last glimpse of Cenate was in Aberdeen of the New York-Penn League in 2003. He is apparently now living in Washington, working as a ramp service agent for an airline. Carte was released in April after five seasons in the Colorado minors. He batted a career .257 and reached the Class AA Tulsa level. Whittington, taken in 2003, was out after three seasons of low-level ball with a 5.90 ERA. Pawelczyk spent seven seasons in the minors but had a 5.84 career ERA, a 10-16 record and exited after the 2008 season. Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827,
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