Player who ran into goalpost emerges as one of nation’s top baseball prospects
It was the kind of incident that would almost surely stick with him forever. Madison (Va.) High sophomore Andy McGuire went back to field a deep kickoff … and ended up running into his team's goalpost. The blooper to end all bloopers ended up on "SportsCenter's" "Not Top-10" and was written about all over the Internet, here at Prep Rally included.
Now, some 18 months later, McGuire has proven that he can take a licking and do more than simply keep on ticking. As highlighted on Dan Steinberg's excellent D.C. Sports Bog at the Washington Post, the teen is the top-ranked junior baseball prospect in the state of Virginia and, according to NBC Washington, recently became the first Virginia player to ever receive a scholarship offer to the baseball hotbed that is the University of Texas (he accepted the offer, for what it's worth).
If that's not enough, McGuire is even an early contender to be a first-round draft pick in the 2013 MLB draft.
When asked about his unfortunate run-in with a goalpost today, McGuire can now laugh about the incident, all while admitting that he took plenty of ribbing from his baseball colleagues.
"I guess I took one too many steps," McGuire told NBC Washington. "I caught it, turned around and the next thing I know I look up at the ref, he's laughing and I hand him the ball."
The Madison baseball coach was one of the people who gave him grief.
"I was more impressed that he held on to the football," Madison coach Mark Gjormand told NBC Washington. "He hit that thing hard. I mean, of course we joked about it, of course I made fun of him about it, but I think in the end he had the best line of all."
That line? "Now that I've been on the Not Top-10, I'm going to strive to make it on the Top-10 and make a web gem somewhere along the line in my career."
Given McGuire's legitimate five-tool package, he might just pull that off sooner rather than later.
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