As the month of April enters its final week and the June amateur draft keeps rumbling towards us like Pete Rose barreling towards home, I couldn’t help but wonder how all of the top two picks in the history of the draft stand up against each other when it comes to careers. Not many number one and number two overall picks have had successful Major League careers but one cannot help but wonder what could have been for some teams if they could pick again.
The draft’s first year was in 1965, with a total of 20 number one overall picks in history named to at least one All-Star team during their careers. Only two number one overall picks retired from the game of baseball without ever playing a Major League game while only two players taken number one overall were named Rookies of the Year. Since 1965, 23 number one overall picks were taken right out of high school.
Even though the draft has only been around since 1965, this will have to be an ongoing series of articles examining the top two picks in each year’s draft because there is so much to delve into when you compare two players.
The first installment in this series begins with the inaugural draft, featuring Rick Monday, drafted number one overall by the Kansas City Athletics and Les Rohr, drafted number two overall by the New York Mets.
Monday was drafted as an outfielder from Arizona State University while Rohr was drafted as a left-handed pitcher from Billings West High School in Billings, Montana.
We begin with Monday, a two-time All-Star (1968 and 1978) and World Series Champion in 1981 with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ironically, the World Series win for the Dodgers was the franchise’s first since 1965, the year Monday was drafted.
Monday made his Major League debut on September 3, 1966 for the Kansas City Athletics, a little over one year after he was drafted. Monday played 19 seasons in the big leagues, hitting .264 with 241 homeruns and 775 runs batted in for three different organizations; the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics (1966-71), the Chicago Cubs (1972-76) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (1977-84).
Monday experienced a career season with the Cubs in 1976 when he set career highs in homeruns (23), runs (107), RBI (77), total bases (271), slugging percentage (.507) and OPS (.853). He finished 18th in MVP voting that season.
Monday must have been destined to play for the Dodgers, as Tommy Lasorda, then a scout for the franchise, tried to convince the prep star from Santa Monica High School to sign with the team in 1963 instead of attending Arizona State University. Lasorda finally got his man in 1977 when he was traded along with Mike Garman to the Dodgers from the Cubs for Jeff Albert, Bill Buckner and Ivan de Jesus. Monday finished out his All-Star career with the Dodgers on June 20, 1984.
Now we need to take a look at the number two pick in the inaugural draft, Les Rohr. Rohr was taken by the New York Mets out of high school. Rohr was born in England while his father was serving in the United States Air Force and later moved to Billings, Montana. Rohr spent parts of only three seasons in the big leagues, all of them with the Mets. He made his Major League debut on September 19, 1967 and played in his final game exactly two years later on September 19, 1969. Rohr spent his entire Major League and Minor League career in the Mets organization, pitching in six games at the Major League level and 97 games at the Minor League level.
Rohr finished with a 3.70 ERA at the Major League level and a 2-3 record. Rohr pitched in only 24.1 innings in his Major League career and had his career cut short when he suffered a pull in a tendon in his pitching arm during a game against the Houston Astros in the 1968 season. Not long after the arm injury, it was found that Rohr had a ruptured disc in his back during a physical required before a proposed trade between the Mets and the Milwaukee Brewers.
Since Rohr’s career never panned out the way the Mets hoped it would, I feel the need to list a couple of names of players who were taken later in the first round of that inaugural draft as well as players taken deep in that 1965 draft.
- Pick 7: Ray Fosse, Cleveland Indians
- Pick 36: Johnny Bench, Cincinnati Reds
- Pick 53: Andy Messersmith, Detroit Tigers
- Pick 61: Ken Holtzman, Chicago Cubs
- Pick 74: Graig Nettles, Minnesota Twins
- Pick 95: Amos Otis, Boston Red Sox
- Pick 226: Nolan Ryan, New York Mets
At least the Mets got one of their picks right in the 1965 draft, as they chose Ryan in the 12th round. Ryan would win his only World Series as a player in 1969 with the Mets. That is what makes the amateur draft so intriguing and at the same time difficult for scouts and management to decide on whom to take. The Mets thought they had their man in Rohr at number two but they really found their ace at pick number 226 with Ryan in the 12th round.
The second installment of this draft comparison series will feature the top two picks from the 1966 draft; Steve Chilcott, drafted number one overall by the New York Mets and Reggie Jackson, drafted number two overall by the Kansas City Athletics.
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Jim is the creator and editor of At the Dish, Cinn City Sports, Life with Tony and Enzo and owner of JAVFreelancing. He coached baseball for five years, three at his former high school (Holy Cross in Delran, NJ) and two at prominent Division III program Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He has worked for the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, NJ; Metro Networks in Bala Cynwyd, PA; and was the play-by-play announcer for the Camden Riversharks of the Independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball for two seasons (2007-2008) on Rowan Radio 89.7 WGLS-FM, the student-run radio station at Rowan University. Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and minor in Journalism from Rowan University in 2008. While in school he was the Assistant Sports Director at WGLS for two years and the Sports Director for one year. He also covered the football, baseball, softball and both basketball teams for the school newspaper 'The Whit.' Jim lives in New Jersey with his wife Nicole, sons Tony and Enzo and dog Phoebe. He can be reached at jimvassallo@mlbdrafts.com.
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