Unlike in other sports, the MLB Draft isn't something that encapsulates many of the League's fans. I enjoy it so that I can look back on it when those kids make it big in the majors. I was also waiting for the day that someone younger than me gets drafted, which came two days ago with the 19th overall pick.
Other baseball fans, however, aren't as enthusiastic about the draft. While football will have a whole spectacle concerning their draft, with hundreds of thousands of fans gathering in a stadium and even more to be outside and watch the draft, the MLB Draft is much different. It's done on a sound stage in Secaucus, New Jersey, and the only people in attendance are representatives from the teams, the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, some reporters, and a few players and their families.
For the kids that get their name called, though, it's one of the biggest events in their entire lives. It's the kind of things that many people dream of from a young age, to be drafted by an MLB team and, maybe one day, make it to the majors. However, there are a lot of dreams that don't come true during those three days the draft takes place.
Just because your name wasn't called doesn't mean your future is over, though. For some people, however, their futures are determined to be over years before that. Enter a little girl who, in 2012, when she was just 6 years old, she was molested by her 16-year-old uncle. He was caught, sentenced, and forced to file as a sex offender for five years, all while the information about his case is sealed because he was a minor.
Fast forward to just about five years later, just days before the MLB Draft in 2017, and the man who pleaded guilty to doing this, Luke Heimlich, now a pitcher for Oregon State University, was set to be a top 100 draft pick, potentially even a first rounder. The Sports Illustrated found out about what he did, or, rather, what he pleaded to doing but now denies having done it. They wrote a story outing him, and the backlash was enough for him to leave the school's baseball team for the rest of the season and for him to go undrafted in last year's draft.
Fast forward again to earlier this week. A lot has changed in this past year for Luke Heimlich. He rejoined the baseball team at OSU, though he's not featured in any promotional material. The draft is coming around again, and while it wouldn't be shocking if he didn't get drafted, there are a few people in the industry that believe that he could be picked by a team in one of the later rounds.
I, for one, watched this develop as the draft went on. The MLB Draft is 40 rounds spread out over three days, with only the first round broadcast on TV and only the second through the fourth rounds live-streamed online. Like many who knew this story, I watched to see if any team was willing to cede their moral worth to draft Luke Heimlich. I can safely say, though, that at the conclusion of the 2018 MLB Draft, Luke Heimlich went undrafted. The story isn't over, though.
Luke Heimlich is still playing baseball for Oregon State and is considered to be one of their better pitchers. He can still be drafted next year, and very well could if the story doesn't surface again. He still denies having done it. He served his debt to society, yes, and though he denies having done it now he served out what a judge deemed to be a fair punishment, but he could still get himself a future many people dream of having, despite having done something that, in most other circumstances, would eliminate any kind of privileged future.
Whether or not he deserved worse or deserves worse now is not up to me. I'm just here to report. Feel free to look into this yourself and learn more about this story, I encourage it. Just know the story, please. When something like this happens the victims are hurt badly, but when people forget about it the victims are hurt even worse. Please do not forget. Please spread the word.
