Quote:
Originally posted by StorminZ
As IRL, it is always nice to see that late round draft pick who would do well to make it as batboy let alone a player work hard and move his way up the ladder. I have one such story.
Zachariah Pennebaker LF: Drafted 7th round, 210 in 2004 (He was the only player left ... literally).
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Great job, StorminZ! That was a nice story. Please keep us posted on his progress.
You inspired me to take a look at my Hall of Fame to see if I could find any similar players. I did, kinda sort of.
Lemuel Allen was the 83rd pick (3rd round) of the 2004 draft. Normally all the starting pitchers are gone by then (I use a 5 round draft), but he was still hanging around, waiting for the call. Granted, the '04 draft was very deep - there are six other HOFers from that draft - but he probably had to grow a lot to make it to the majors.
And make it he did, of course. He got a cup of coffee in 2007, an extended trial in '08, and was in the majors to stay in '09. His last major league game was in 2022, he spent the next year in the minors, and then retired.
His career record:
<pre>
G W L S CG SHO IP HA ER BB K ERA
472 218 133 0 128 31 3493.0 3250 1140 571 1969 2.94
</pre>
I inducted him manually because I thought he was worthy. He made 5 All-Star
teams and won a pair of Clemens Awards.
Not quite the same story as Zachariah, but I thought I would share it anyway.