When this guy shows up, you're good...

I covered Brownwood High School's Shelby Miller again on Tuesday. It was a one-game series so, I just assumed that Brownwood was going to win. Yes Miller is that damn good. He throws in the mid-high 90's with his fastball, and has the nastiest curveball I've ever seen out of a high school pitcher. But, that's not what showed me exactly how good he is. And, it wasn't the 14 strikeouts he had (high school games are 7 innings), the couple times he struck out the side, or the way he pitched out of trouble when errors got him in trouble.

I had to shoot another assignment that started at the same time the game started, so I showed up a little late. The bottom of the second inning had just started. While talking to one of the TV guys we were talking about Miller and how good he is. We were talking about all the scouts who had pretty much been following Miller around like Deadheads followed Jerry Garcia and his merry band of hippies. And then one of them said yeah, I doubt "that guy" would be here watching him if he wasn't any good. "That guy" was Nolan Ryan, the current president of the Texas Rangers. Now, when one of the greatest pitchers ever to play the game comes to scout your playing, I think you qualify as a great player. He didn't stay the whole game only the first three innings, luckily I got to make a shot of him watching while Miller pitched. The funny thing is, I've been trying to get this shot with the shadow of the batter for a few years now, every time I shoot a game while the sun is setting, but it has never worked out until now. I think maybe the photo gods were smiling on me to have Nolan standing there so I could finally get that shot.

By the way, the bottom photo is one of the Brownwood players, just a photo that I liked.