DETROIT -- The Tigers saw enough in Clate Schmidt to draft him out of high school a few years ago, knowing he was probably headed to college. They kept tracking him at Clemson, and saw enough of him to use a 20th-round pick on him Saturday.
What happened in between, however, doesn't fit on a stat sheet or a scouting report. To write down "toughness" or "tenacity" on a Draft write-up doesn't quite describe what Schmidt endured to realize his dream of professional baseball.
A year ago at this point, Schmidt was beginning chemotherapy treatments. A lump he had noticed in his neck before his junior season turned out to be Nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's lymphoma.