SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Colton Welker wrapped up batting practice and a spring training session last week right on routine. Then he was ripped back into the reality of home.
The 20-year-old minor league third baseman, one of the top prospects in baseball at his position, was a Rockies draft pick out of Stoneman Douglas High School just two years ago. He is barely removed from the Florida school where 14 students, a teacher, a coach and the school’s athletic director were killed last Wednesday in the most recent American mass school shooting.
Like the Columbine High shooting did for Denver, the killings at Stoneman Douglas suddenly made the reality of a massacre more real.