Bubba Starling walked into a convention center in downtown Kansas City last January and spoke with optimism. Minutes before signing autographs at the Royals’ annual FanFest, he was candid about his past, admitting he once nearly quit baseball but noting that he now envisioned a future in which he was the Royals’ starting center fielder. And soon, he added.
This has been the cycle with Starling for nearly a decade now, a man with enough athletic potential to be selected fifth overall in the MLB Draft and earn a football scholarship to play quarterback at Nebraska. But the conclusion of the cycle has remained consistent, too.