Draft stories are supposed to begin with a player getting a call that changes everything. For someone like Tigers first-round pick Jace Jung, that would mean the nice little anecdote about how he picked up the phone and someone told him, for the first time, that he was going to be a Detroit Tiger. Problem is Jung’s draft-night story has an even better beginning than that. Because the first time he heard he was going to be a Detroit Tiger, he was in the 10th grade.
Jung says he had a teacher at MacArthur High in Texas named Frank Filipone who was a huge Tigers fan. Nearly every day, Jung would walk into class, and Filipone would tell Jung about how he was going to get drafted, how he was going to make the majors, and how it was all going to be with his beloved Tigers. Who knew the sophomore-year teacher could see the future?
“I was like, ‘Oh yeah, whatever,’” Jung said.
(Photo: Rick Scuteri / Associated Press)