Amazing. I first met Buster, his mom and grandma while sharing taxi rides in Taiwan in 2004. Super nice people.
Buster was entering his HS senior year at the time. On that USA team (teammates included Justin Upton, Andrew McCutchen, Ike Davis and others now in MLB), Buster was primarily a pitcher. Probably the #1 starter for that team and a very good one at that. He did play some 2B as well...but not a ton.
Buster had some good college choices at that time...he had narrowed his recruiting to Stanford and Florida State. Nearly all of us woulda said at that time, 'You've got a chance at Stanford?...you gotta go!' But as we all know, he chose FSU. Closer to home...not sure why else. But he did.
Wow! What an incredible decision in retrospect. Serendipity, perhaps? But FSU converted him from a SS to a catcher after one year and the rest is history. Where would Buster be without that conversion? Would any other school have made that switch, let alone Stanford? Would he have been an infielder there?...or a starting RHP?
But it goes even further...Jason Castro (later 1st round pick of the Astros...a catcher)...woulda been in Buster's entering class at Stanford. Given that, its very doubtful that Buster would have made that switch...if for no other reason than getting the most production on the field as possible.
There's probably no way any of us coulda seen what was coming. But, oh my goodness! What a strange twist of events for the very, VERY positive for at least 2 very, VERY good catchers and outstandingly good people.
To me, just interesting stuff to ponder.
