This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's April 24 NFL Draft Issue. Subscribe today!
The players are changing into their uniforms in the parking lot. The opponents are the Virginia Marlins, representing the University of Virtual Applied Athletics in Danville, Virginia. The crowd numbers three dozen, if you include the dogs sitting in the concrete grandstands, which are only slightly harder and grayer than the infield. In every way, the scene suggests the lowest possible rung of competition.
Yet the rhythms of opening day -- muscles twitching, bats swinging, adrenaline pulsing -- are particularly exciting for the group of 20 college-age athletes gathering behind the third-base line.