Most of these players will be out of baseball in a few years. Ruiz ponders that, even though he seemed destined for the majors since the day he was born. His father, a baseball fan, named him Willy Randolph Ruiz for the former Yankee second baseman. Now Ruiz is 21. On occasion, he wonders if he made the wrong choice.
Baseball is a hard, hard game.
If you go to the university, like my brother did, you can get a career that will last you all your life. If you try baseball and don't make it, you're nothing. I I I Pena, filled with the optimism of youth, has no such doubts. He knows he's going to make it. He hopes to improve his fastball to a knee-buckling 98 mph by year's end.