Yesterday's Stars Of Tomorrow Today . . .

So here's someone I haven't thought about since probably 1991:

After being selected No. 1 overall by the Yankees in the 1991 MLB draft, Taylor was expected to take the Bronx by storm.

A shoulder injury suffered in a bar fight derailed the left-hander's pitching career and, despite a then-record $1.55 million signing bonus, he never made the majors.

On Thursday, Taylor was arrested on drug charges in Carteret County, N.C.

There's a thrill in knowing about "tomorrow's stars today" and before Royce Clayton, I think the first person I thought to pay attention to might have been Brien Taylor. This was back when I started to conceive of baseball as I would, say, a record collection. In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't go down that route. I would have probably wasted a lot of time on stuff like fantasy baseball or something.

That's not to say that a little part of me feels like I want to know about the stars of tomorrow. It's a latent impulse in everyone, but probably mostly male collector scum types. I continue to indulge this impulse: I'm still waiting to see what happens with Dellin Betances — if we position him right, he could do for the Lower East Side what Jeremy Lin did for, I don't know, the continent of Asia, I guess. Speaking of Linsanity, even the president has a bit of collector scum in him:

[Bill Simmons]: So you're catching up, obviously, on the fact that you had been surpassed as the most famous person who was a Harvard graduate.

Obama: Jeremy is —

BS: Jeremy Lin.

Obama: — doing good. And I knew about Jeremy before you did, or everybody else did, because Arne Duncan, my Secretary of Education, was captain of the Harvard team. And so way back when, Arne and I were playing and he said, I'm telling you, we've got this terrific guard named Jeremy Lin at Harvard. And then one of my best friends, his son is a freshman at Harvard, and so when he went for a recruiting trip he saw Lin in action. So I've been on the Jeremy Lin bandwagon for a while.

BS: Are you taking credit for "Linsanity"? It kind of feels like you are a little bit.

Obama: I can't take credit for it, but I'm just saying I was there early.

It's an intoxicating feeling, knowing something most others don't. And it's even better in baseball, because so few players in the minor leagues make it to the majors, so knowing about tomorrow's stars today is an especially satisfying feeling.

Which is to say, I remember thinking something along the lines of, "Oh, I should remember Brien Taylor because he's probably going to be awesome." That was of course the last time I thought about Brien Taylor. I could never be Tim Kurkjian, much, much less Will Leitch.

Here's a selection of Taylor stories from the New York Times archives:

• In 1991 Taylor became the highest-paid player in the history of the amateur draft ("New to Yanks, New to City, Old Hand in Cutting a Deal")
• In 1993 Taylor dislocated his shoulder during a bar fight ("Yanks' Taylor Has Dislocated Left Shoulder")
• In 1994 he struggled to come back after surgery ("Brien Taylor Goes From Being Yanks' Future to Invisible Phenom")
• In one and one-third inning of intrasquad play during spring training before the 1996 season, Taylor threw 47 picthes, 28 of those for balls ("Taylor Struggles To Recover Control")
• By 1997, Taylor's one-time 100-mph fastball was only around 90, peaking at 93 ("Hardscrabble Dream: Road Winds Slowly for Brien Taylor")
• In 1999 he was given a minor league contract with the Seattle Mariners after the Yankees had to let him go ("A Flicker of Hope For Brien Taylor")
• By June 1999 Brien Taylor had been cut by the Mariners ("Ex-Yankee Signee Brien Taylor Is Cut")

And then now he may go to jail for dealing cocaine.