8/12/08-Princeton @ Burlington

If you are a baseball nerd and live in the Research Triangle of North Carolina the next two days are pretty special....Tim Beckham is playing in Burlington and David Price is pitching Wednesday in Durham...Not bad, huh? I went out Tuesday evening to check out Mr. Beckham....
His first AB? Home run on a no-doubter to LF. Not a bad first impression. The next batter? Burt Reyolds (-the moustache, see below)....Another homer....
I was a little confused with the post home run celebrations. After Beckham's home run nobody really seemed to congratulate him. After Reynolds home run the entire team met him at home plate. Maybe it was just a coincidence and maybe Beckham is viewed as some sort of brat by his teammates, or maybe I am just speculating.
Anyway, Beckham has a lot of fun when he is playing. He usually has a smile on his face, which is always nice to see. A lot of the predraft hype labeled him as a potential "five-tool" player. I saw four tools on display, He looks solid with the glove, he flashed some power, showed some speed (stealing second base), showed off his bat with another base-hit, but I didn't see much of an arm out of him. I don't think it is that big of a deal, but this is the only potential flaw I noticed in him.
It is pretty neat to think that I saw Tim Beckham's first home run in professional baseball. I am looking forward to see what David Price does tomorrow night....