WASHINGTON – Gary Thurman sat behind home plate in a rickety seat at Hagerstown’s Municipal Stadium, where another outfielder by the name of Willie Mays made his debut in organized baseball some 70 years ago.
Thurman, then and now an outfield/baserunning coordinator in player development with the Washington Nationals, had come to Hagerstown for this midweek day game in April 2018 to watch a young minor leaguer named Juan Soto.
“He has good work habits,” Thurman, a former Major League outfielder, told me that day about Soto. “He just needs to play. He is well beyond his years in a lot of ways.