David Justice: Madison Bumgarner near top of my list of top high school players

Before becoming a World Series Most Valuable Player in dominating fashion, Madison Bumgarner, as a 17-year-old senior and just a week away from being the 10th player picked in the Major League Baseball draft, led South Caldwell to the 4A state championship in 2007 at Five County Stadium in Zebulon.

I’ve covered high school sports as a correspondent for more than 40 years, first for the Raleigh Times and then with the News and Observer. Baseball is my favorite sport and, of course, my favorite games I ever saw were the ones my sons played.

But over that time I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of very good and great teams and a lot of very good and great high school players. Naturally, Bumgarner and his Spartans teammates are near the top of the list.

Bumgarner’s junior year, South Caldwell played a very good Scotland County team. The best-of-3 series was at N.C. State’s Doak Field. Bumgarner was the winning pitcher in the 12-0 series opener, but the Fighting Scots bounced back to take 1-0 and 10-5 wins.

Bumgarner was listed at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds. He was a lefty who threw in the mid-’90s and he could hit. People who know baseball said he was going to be a first-round pick a year later.

He was also impressive as a person. Since neither team was in our coverage area, I didn’t cover the South Caldwell games. I covered the 1A series, with Chatham Central, which shared the site with the 4A teams. I had to stay to watch him play.

After the game, I watched him politely talk to people and sign autographs for kids. I saw the autograph, very legible and he would add a Bible scripture under his signature.

A year later the Spartans were back in the state finals and faced Wilmington Laney at Five County. Bumgarner won the opener 4-1, gave up six hits and struck out 12. He also had two hits.

The next day Bumgarner ended the championship series with a long drive to center field that bounced off the fence. He turned it into an inside-the-park homer that put his team ahead 10-0 and ended the game by the 10-run rule.

Again, I wasn’t covering the game, but I didn’t want to miss the chance to see him play.

So where does Bumgarner rank as far as high school players I’ve ever seen?

I’m no scout, just a fan, but a few stand out that you know have a shot at making the big leagues.

I saw Trot Nixon hit a long home run at N.C. State against Millbrook. In the 1980s, Patrick Lennon and Tommy Greene starred for Whiteville and both reached the show.

It was hard to imagine there being a better high school catcher than Landon Powell at Apex and he was a first-rounder out of South Carolina and reached the big leagues. Nobody competed any harder than Carlos Rodon at Holly Springs.

But for me, Josh Hamilton is still at the top of my list. I saw him and Daniel Caldwell pitch against each other at Wake Forest-Rolesville. Athens Drive won 1-0. They combined for 31 strikeouts and played that game in about 65 minutes.

There was a lot of talk about whether Hamilton would sign as a hitter or pitcher. At the plate, he looked relaxed and in total control. He reminded me of a slow-pitch softball hitter, just waiting for his pitch to hit. Josh Hamilton didn’t homer every time, but you expected it.

Madison Bumgarner is right there and it’s great to watch him seven years after leading the Spartans to a championship.

This story was originally published October 30, 2014 at 7:49 PM with the headline "David Justice: Madison Bumgarner near top of my list of top high school players."