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I am sure back in high school, you dream about the future. Some people just make those dreams come true. Despite the odds of being a 33rd round draft pick out of Western Carolina, Rutherford County's own Tyler White has persevered.
White started the 2016 Major League Baseball season at first base for the Houston Astros on Monday. Beginning your MLB career on the road against the New York Yankees has to be a crazy dream come true. The former Chase High grad has knocked three homers and batted for .353 average during spring training to claim the Astors opening day start at first base.
When I talked to has father, Brian, when Tyler was first drafted, from what he gathered many who are picked in the 33rd round of the draft normally see three years of baseball at best. Following three seasons in the minors, White has accomplished the unremarkable by reaching the majors in his fourth.
I hope Rutherford County continues to cheer on the 25-year old, even if he isn't with the team of what most people call this...Braves Country.
Short track racing, NASCAR, Martinsville all came together this past weekend. And while we saw typical Martinsville in some aspects, it was sort of a tame event for the physically demanding bullring.
I am convinced Matt Kenseth had the best car, but was hung up on the outside on the last restart, which allowed Kyle Busch to pick up a Martinsville win for the first time in his career.
Don't get me wrong, Busch led the most laps and deserved to win, but Kenseth was in the middle of passing Busch when the final caution flag fell. If Kenseth would have had the inside line on the restart, I think it was Kenseth's to win.
I will say that I was impressed with Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle. Both are usually terrible in Martinsville. Edwards came back from a lap down on the start to finish sixth. Biffle may have been more impressive as he stayed on the lead lap all day and came home 12th.
Denny Hamlin shockingly crashed all by himself and pre-race favorite Joey Logano never got the set up right during the second run of the afternoon, but finished 11th.
Like Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson also learned a lot from the Truck race on Saturday and applied it to Sunday. A four-tire change on the final caution of the race propelled Larson from seventh on the restart to a third place finish. Larson never really saw anything outside of the top ten all day. A.J. Allmendinger put on a heck of a showing as well and finished second. That ties the best a single car team has run all year with Martin Truex Jr. who finished second in the Daytona 500.
Of course, cool weather and track temperature played a huge factor. If the race track would have been hotter, it would have been a completely different race. There were some good battles all day such as Jimmie Johnson/Brad Keselowski. Paul Menard and Austin Dillon also mixed it up.
There were a few heated moments, a lot of pushing and shoving, but not as much aggressiveness as we are used too. Whether the Kenseth-Logano incident of last year played apart in that...it's possible.
The next Cup Martinsville race is six months away. The weather maybe the same as on Sunday, but the stakes will be much higher as the playoffs will be in effect by then.
