I love baseball! I'll always remember when I was a kid walking up the ramp to our seats and seeing the finely cut green grass of the playing field, the smells of the overpriced hot dogs and beer, and the exciting possibility of catching a foul ball. 

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I've talked to local players who are trying to make it to the big leagues and they tell me it's tough. Class A ball players earn about half as much as a fast food worker. The odds of high school players making it into any type of MLB scenario is 1 in a 100. The percentage of these same players making it into the Big Leagues is significantly less than 1%. Based on these percentages, I'm impressed by players from our area who have made it into some facet of professional baseball. Here are a few of those players:

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Matt Barnes...gettyimages
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**Red Sox pitching prospect, Matt Barnes, a 2008 graduate of Bethel High went on to star at UCONN and is 0-1 with one save and a 6.52 ERA in Spring Training.........

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Evan Scribner...gettyimages
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**Oakland A's reliever Evan Scribner, a former Shepaug High School star has made 6 relief appearances and has a 4.32 ERA and 12 strikeouts.......

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Charlie Morton...gettyimages
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**Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher Charlie Morton, a 2002 graduate from Joel Barlow High....the 31 year old went 6-12 with a 3.72 ERA in 26 starts with the Pirates last year............

**Former Danbury Westerners who have made to the majors include outfielder, Matt Joyce, currently batting .350 this spring for the Angels, outfielder Brian Bogusevic is batting .393 for the Phillies, and Mike Olt is batting .267 for the Cubs. Enjoy this video of some epic manager meltdowns! Play Ball!!!!!!

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