The first Draft Day

Rick Monday during his college days at Arizona State

‍Baseball’s inaugural amateur draft is held 61 years ago today and starts with the Kansas City Athletics selecting Arizona State outfielder Rick Monday first overall and the New York Mets following with Montana high school pitcher Les Rohr. ‍

Monday has a fine career in the major leagues, playing 19 seasons for the A’s, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Rohr is not nearly as fortunate, spending small portions of three seasons in the majors – like six appearances small – with the Mets before retiring in 1970 at the age of 24.

Tom Seaver decides to stay at USC

From the start, though, the draft shows the flaws that team have in assessing talent.

Future Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench, then an 18-year-old high school player from Binger, Okla., waits until the second round for the Cincinnati Reds to select him with the 36th overall pick. ‍

Another future Hall of Famer in pitcher Nolan Ryan – who, like Bench, is an 18-year-old high school senior from Alvin, Texas – stays on the board until the Mets take him in the 12th round with the 295th overall pick.

College pitcher Tom Seaver, a future Hall of Famer like Bench and Ryan, is ignored for nine rounds before the Dodgers take him in the 10th round with the 193rd pick.

Seaver, though, tells the Dodgers thanks but, um, no thanks, and returns to Southern Cal for another college season.

He eventually reaches the major leagues in 1967 with the New York Mets, beginning a 20-year career that leads to 311 victories and, like Bench and Ryan, a first-ballot selection to the Hall of Fame.

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