Thirteen years ago, on the morning of the opening day of the MLB draft, Matt Antonelli received a strange phone call.
Antonelli, a Georgetown, Mass., native, was coming off a superb third season at Wake Forest, a power-hitting infielder who had an idea he’d be drafted high. Peter Gammons was projecting him as a first-round pick, and he wasn’t alone.
Then the phone rang.
“I had no idea who it was,” said Antonelli, recalling the moment more than a decade later. “He didn’t identify himself. He said, ‘Do you still have all 10 fingers and all 10 toes? Good, hang on, because we might be doing something here.”
That was the conversation.