LOS ANGELES -- Rick Monday was a few days away from driving from Arizona State University to the 1965 College World Series championship in Omaha, Neb., when word arrived that he'd been taken by the Kansas City A's with the first overall pick in Major League Baseball's inaugural First-Year Player Draft.
Fifty years later, Monday reflected on the momentous events swirling around that 19-year-old kid. Two years earlier, his mother had promised a persistent scout named Tommy Lasorda that her son -- having just graduated from Santa Monica (Calif.) High School -- would sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers after attending college.