FORT MYERS, Fla. - With straw-hatted scouts clustered like ants in JetBlue Park's shade, hundreds of sweating, sunbaked high school baseball players gathered in June for the Perfect Game National Showcase, and overexerted themselves on nearly every throw and swing.
Then, like a welcome breeze amid all the sweat and struggle, Jason Groome coolly took his turn on the mound. If, in their zeal to impress, his pitching peers' efforts seemed grossly exaggerated, the New Jersey native's were as smooth and sweet as the nectarines in an adjacent orchard.
As the scouts ceased chattering and aimed a barrage of radar guns at him, the 6-foot-6, 220-pound teenager looked unaffected.