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Amazin69 · 08-13-2018, 06:59 PM

Thanks, as always.

And sometimes everybody gets it wrong. Brian Lane's dad, Harlan Lane, had been a college football star at Baylor, which is how Brian grew up in Waco, TX, starring at Midway High, where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017. Making All-State in both his junior and senior seasons, the big third baseman turned down a scholarship to the University of Texas when the Cincinnati Reds made him their 3rd round pick in 1987.

Lane moved quickly from Rookie ball Billings to A-ball Greensboro to AA Chattanooga, reaching the All-Star game at each level, and getting better every year. Unfortunately for Lane, "better" only meant improving his OPS from .574 to .680 to .701, always with at least twice as many Ks as walks. Even when he drove in 89 runs at Chattanooga in 1989, he only hit .252, with just 34 XBH in over 500 PA. And he was a crappy fielder, too, with fielding percentages consistently in the .920 range.

Still, nobody was getting off the Lane Train. With three seasons under his belt, he was added to the 40-man roster and thus got a major league contract, worth $100,000 for 1990. Baseball America debuted its "Top 100" Prospects list, and Reggie Jefferson (28) and Lane (36) were the only Reds on the list. Bowman did a baseball card of him, and he was invited to major league camp, where he and Jefferson were among the first wave of cuts, on March 30. Then he went down to AAA Nashville, and completely bombed (.193 BA, .634 OPS), which sent him down to Chattanooga to lick his wounds. (And he still only posted a .679 there.)

On top of all this, Lane had developed knee problems, which ended up costing him the entire 1991 season. He came back in 1992 with two semi-decent months at Chattanooga (.762 OPS) and one very mediocre one at Nashville (.675). Then he spent 1993 at Chattanooga, putting up perhaps his most consistent year (.264/.329/.421), but those were hardly all-star numbers for someone who had first reached that level four years before. And so, despite being only 24, Brian decided his career was stuck in the slow Lane, and took the off-ramp to life after baseball.

Another writeup, complete with Reds camp pic, is in the minor league player thread, courtesy of Rainmaker. (Fewer achingly bad puns there, though.)

08-13-2018, 06:59 PM	#784
Amazin69 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Palmetto Pride! Posts: 4,046 Infractions: 0/2 (2)	Thanks, as always. And sometimes everybody gets it wrong. Brian Lane's dad, Harlan Lane, had been a college football star at Baylor, which is how Brian grew up in Waco, TX, starring at Midway High, where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017. Making All-State in both his junior and senior seasons, the big third baseman turned down a scholarship to the University of Texas when the Cincinnati Reds made him their 3rd round pick in 1987. Lane moved quickly from Rookie ball Billings to A-ball Greensboro to AA Chattanooga, reaching the All-Star game at each level, and getting better every year. Unfortunately for Lane, "better" only meant improving his OPS from .574 to .680 to .701, always with at least twice as many Ks as walks. Even when he drove in 89 runs at Chattanooga in 1989, he only hit .252, with just 34 XBH in over 500 PA. And he was a crappy fielder, too, with fielding percentages consistently in the .920 range. Still, nobody was getting off the Lane Train. With three seasons under his belt, he was added to the 40-man roster and thus got a major league contract, worth $100,000 for 1990. Baseball America debuted its "Top 100" Prospects list, and Reggie Jefferson (28) and Lane (36) were the only Reds on the list. Bowman did a baseball card of him, and he was invited to major league camp, where he and Jefferson were among the first wave of cuts, on March 30. Then he went down to AAA Nashville, and completely bombed (.193 BA, .634 OPS), which sent him down to Chattanooga to lick his wounds. (And he still only posted a .679 there.) On top of all this, Lane had developed knee problems, which ended up costing him the entire 1991 season. He came back in 1992 with two semi-decent months at Chattanooga (.762 OPS) and one very mediocre one at Nashville (.675). Then he spent 1993 at Chattanooga, putting up perhaps his most consistent year (.264/.329/.421), but those were hardly all-star numbers for someone who had first reached that level four years before. And so, despite being only 24, Brian decided his career was stuck in the slow Lane, and took the off-ramp to life after baseball. Another writeup, complete with Reds camp pic, is in the minor league player thread, courtesy of Rainmaker. (Fewer achingly bad puns there, though.)