James McCann doesn't remember how old he was, but he remembers it clearly. The day he and his dad went to a park with a baseball. Pick a spot on a chain link fence, his dad told him. Now, hit that two-inch intertwined diamond, and that spot only. Again. And again.
"You better be able to hit this spot or you're not gonna be able to play at the next level," McCann remembers his father saying.
The chain link fence was soon surpassed by the brick wall in the yard behind McCann's house. The target became a single brick on the wall, where McCann dedicated himself to being able to hit his target with precision.