Young, Gifted And Black

WHETHER OR not Price secures a playoff spot for Tampa Bay, he will make an impact in other ways. At Vanderbilt he set up a program with the Nashville chapter of RBI—Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities—that allowed underprivileged kids to attend Commodores games for free. And he began a postgame tradition he has brought to the pros. After his team wins a game that he started, he stands outside the clubhouse, congratulating everyone on their way inside, making sure to enter last. Brad Matthews, a Rays scout, wrote in his first report about Price in October 2006, "This guy could be the face of our organization."

It's a line that gets thrown around often, but not so often about African-American players. Last February, as Price headed out for his first spring training workout with the Rays, he sent Matthews this text message: "I want to thank you for having the confidence to take me with the first pick. I won't let you down." In Price's spring training debut, against the Yankees at Legends Field in Tampa, he struck out the side. Then he received a standing ovation at the Yankees' home field.

Rays executives do not want to rush Price to the majors and risk stunting his development, but players and fans are getting antsy. Before a recent game against the Blue Jays at Tropicana Field, Crawford entertained his teammates with a slow-motion impersonation of Price's delivery, pausing at the exact point that Price releases his slider. The implication was obvious: If Price could handle the Yankees so easily in the spring, who's to say he can't handle the Yankees and the Red Sox in the late summer?

Price is in a unique position, just one year out of college, still hanging out in the minors, about to walk into this wholly unexpected showdown—David versus Two Goliaths. It would be dramatic if he were white, Latino or Asian. But it is particularly meaningful that he is a potential African-American superstar, at a time when baseball is desperate to convince the kids of Belmont Heights to keep swinging for the rooftops.