Aflac 2006 game notes
- 08-12-2006
- By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions
Tampa’s Michael Burgess of Hillsborough High was presented with the fourth annual Jackie Robinson Award as the 2006 Aflac High School Player of the Year on Friday night at the Aflac All-American Awards Dinner at the Town and Country Resort.
The award was presented by Rachel Robinson, widow of the Hall-of-Famer who broke baseball’s color line in 1947, and Hall-of-Fame slugger Reggie Jackson, the honorary chairman of the 2006 Aflac game.
The Jackie Robinson Award honors the nation’s top high school player about to enter his senior year. Last spring Burgess, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound left-handed pitcher and outfielder, batted .511 (45-for-88) with 12 home runs, 48 RBIs, 11 doubles and 24 stolen bases. He led Hillsborough to Florida’s 5A state title.
In all, the East All-Stars swept the Aflac awards as Derek Dietrich of St. Ignatius High in Parma, Ohio, and Michael Main of DeLand High in Deltona, Fla., earned other two awards presented at the dinner.
Dietrich received the Sportsmanship Award from the week of practice leading up to the game. Maine received the Pitching Prospect of the Year award that is selected by “Baseball America.”
Mission Bay’s Sequoyah Stonecipher finished second in the home run derby Saturday before the game with four shots over the left and left-center field fence. Cameron Rupp, also of the West from Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Texas, won with seven. The players were given 10 outs in the contest.
In the first three years of the Aflac game, there have been 18 players chosen in the first round and two as the first pick of the draft. The first No. 1 was Matt Bush, the Mission Bay High alumnus taken first overall by the Padres in 2004. In his third pro summer, Bush is struggling with injuries while playing with the Padres A team in Fort Wayne, Ind.
The West All-Stars were coached by Dennis Pugh, the long-time coach at Mission Bay High who won eight CIF San Diego Section titles with the Buccaneers. Pugh stepped down at the end of last season to to take a position starting a baseball program next spring at Cal State San Marcos.
The East All-Stars were coached by Kevin Maris, a high school coach in Gainesville, Fla., and the son of Roger Maris, baseball’s home run king with 61 in 1961 before baseball’s steroids era. Maris had previously brought his high school team to San Diego for the annual Mike Morrow Lions Tournament.
There were more scouts than players at the games with 102 scouts and directors of scouting representing 15 of the Major League teams.
The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by 14-year-old Daniel Fallbrook, a patient San Diego’s Rady Children’s Hospital, with Jackson catching the ball in his role as honorary chairman. The hospital was the beneficiary of the Aflac game and received a check for $145,000 at the awards dinner.
Tom Shanahan can be contacted at 619-699-2334 or toms@sdhoc.com.
