For the June 21 issue, Albert Chen wrote "National Treasure" on America's favorite phenom pitcher (yea, it's a bit of hyperbole, but not a lot), Stephen Strasburg.
Strasburg fascinates me from the perspective of both his potential and how he actually seems to live up to it (as referenced in this previous blog entry). Maybe something will go wrong and his anticipated brilliant career won't materialize, but it's cool to think of seeing the beginning of what could amount to baseball greatness.
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The second piece that I really liked was from SI's basketball guy (least it seems that way), Chris Ballard. Here he branches a long ways out to write about 1971 high school baseball in small-town Illinois. His feature "The Magical Season Of The Macon Ironmen" is excellent writing and paints a vivid portrait of an interesting story. The sub-headline gets at the gist of things covered with "Hoosiers, anyone?"
Alright... I just can't resist, gotta post this video...
