The Futures Game, now a staple of Major League Baseball’s All-Star festivities, didn’t exist in 1995. And that’s history’s loss.
We get fired up now for the likes of Michael Conforto (Mets), Aaron Judge (Yankees) and Kyle Schwarber (Cubs), all of whom will play in Sunday’s 17th annual prospects showcase at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park? Imagine such an event 20 years ago featuring Baseball America’s top-ranked future star, Alex Rodriguez, and its No. 4, Derek Jeter.
Of course, far from all of Sunday’s participants will attain their full potential, and the game’s poster boy for untapped promise — or wasted talent, as some might put it — would’ve stood alongside A-Rod and Jeter in that hypothetical ’95 game.