The story of the number one pick in the secondary draft is more interesting. Pete Varney was drafted first by the Astros but he didn't sign. Varney was the number one pick in 1971 by the White Sox and did sign. Here is Varney's draft history from baseball-reference.com:
- August 24, 1966: Drafted by the Kansas City Athletics in the 1st round (1st pick) of the 1966 amateur draft (August Legion), but did not sign.
- January 28, 1967: Drafted by the Houston Astros in the 1st round (1st pick) of the 1967 amateur draft (January Secondary), but did not sign.
- June 6, 1967: Drafted by the Houston Astros in the 3rd round of the 1967 amateur draft (June Secondary), but did not sign.
- June 5, 1969: Drafted by the Washington Senators in the 2nd round of the 1969 amateur draft (June Secondary), but did not sign.
- June 4, 1970: Drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 2nd round of the 1970 amateur draft (June Secondary), but did not sign.
- January 13, 1971: Drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 1st round (20th pick) of the 1971 amateur draft (January Secondary), but did not sign.
- June 8, 1971: Drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 1st round (1st pick) of the 1971 amateur draft (June Secondary).
He ended up playing 69 games from 1973 - 1976. His draft career (1966 - 1971) lasted longer than his major league career (1973 - 1976).
Why did he choose to not sign all of these times? Maybe because he was attending Harvard and playing football and baseball there? He went on to coach baseball at Brandeis for 34 years, retiring recently.
The Cubs picked Alec Distaso with the first pick which didn't help those 1970s teams that I grew up watching. He played two games for the 1969 Cubs and his career ended a year later due to elbow injuries. Wikipedia mentions that he was a career police officer and he passed away a few years ago.
Here are the players drafted in that first round who also got into a Kellogg's set.
#03 Ken Singleton (Mets)
#04 Carlton Fisk
#17 Von Joshua
No one from subsequent rounds ever appeared on a Kellogg's card. This January draft was not as large as the June draft.
Interesting story about Varney. I almost went to Brandeis to play baseball. It would have originally been for his predecessor by two years.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see this stuff on baseball-reference.com even if Varney wasn't featured on a Kellogg's card. I remember him since he was on the White Sox.
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