Konnor Griffin is the middle child of a Division III college softball coach. His parents’ names both start with K, as do both of his brothers’. “If my mom’s trying to get a hold of me, she’ll probably say my other two brothers’ names first and then get to mine,” he said. “It’s kind of confusing, but everybody in my family has K as a first initial. It’s different, but it makes us unique.”
Griffin has a broad smile and an equally broad Mississippi accent, and from the neck down he’s pure muscle. He’s just preposterously big: 6-foot-4, 205 pounds, though he’d have no trouble convincing me he was being cheated another inch and 20 or 30 pounds. At his size, there’s the potential for plus-plus power. He can also run — he stole more than 80 bases in his final high school season — and hit the mid-90s throwing off a mound. He’s 18 years old and just graduated high school. He says he can play shortstop at the next level, but can he cook and do laundry?
“I’m trying to learn that stuff right now,” he says. “I know how to wash clothes. I don’t know how to cook great. I’m still working on that.”
I told Griffin that a crockpot is your best friend. (If you’ll indulge a brief digression: The crockpot is a magical machine that turns random ingredients into tasty, nutritious meals with zero effort or technique required. It’s a must-have for any young person who can barely cook. When I’m president, the government will issue every high school graduate a crockpot when they move out of their parents’ house for the first time.)
Griffin Burkholder, a speedy high school outfielder from Virginia who could go off the board early on Day Two, says that while he wants to improve his culinary repertoire, he’s discovered an affinity for making pasta. “You can do a variety of pastas that are pretty easy,” he said. “I make a good mac and cheese, make some good vodka pasta. That kind of stuff’s always good and not too hard to make.”
The high school kids I talked to at the Draft Combine are going through two different experiences at once, one universal, the other highly unusual. The first: Graduating high school, moving out of their parents’ houses for the first time, starting college and/or a career. Every teenager (at least every teenager who won’t become a burden to their future roommates and/or romantic partners) learns how to cook and clean. Every teenager has to figure out who they are and what they want out of life, once given the freedom to make their own decisions.
Where Burkholder, Griffin, and their cohort diverge from that universal experience is here, at the draft. They’ve been preparing for this moment for years, and have been picked over by scouts, coaches, and — yes, reporters — along the way.
