Classic Rant #273 (June 9, 2010): Ah, Youth …

Didn't someone once say that "youth is wasted on the young?"

I think someone did, but I don't know who.

But some young people are making major strides into becoming big stars, and yesterday, young baseball players made it known that their youth was not a detriment to their success.

On the eve of the baseball draft--filled with many more young players who will eventually become stars--the Washington Nationals' super-hyped pitcher Stephen Strasburg won his maiden Major League game, a 5-2 victory over the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates.

The young pitcher, who is only 21 years old, struck out 14 in his debut, and only allowed four hits. He didn't walk anyone.

I guess all the hype was true about this guy. He threw several pitches at 100 miles per hour, and 65 of his 94 pitches were strikes.

Almost forgotten in this hubbub is that another baseball phenom, the Florida Marlins' rightfielder Mike Stanton, also had an impressive debut.

In his team's 10-8 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, Stanton went three for five with two infield singles, He also scored two runs.

The 20-year-old is projected less as a singles hitter and more as a slugger, but nonetheless, this was another impressive debut.

And it all makes one feel old. Heck, at 53 years old, I am more than twice the age of these two guys. Even if you add up their ages, I am still way older than the two of them put together.

Sure, I had dreams to play Major League Baseball, but I stunk, and I knew I stunk. But I was never the worst player on the field, and I knew that, too. So I played Little League until I was 15 and then called it a day.

This is unlike another very young slugger, the Atlanta Braves' Jason Heyward, has been hyped as baseball's newest power source. He has had a fine season for the surprising Braves, and, to boot, he is the son of someone who lived in my old stomping grounds in Rochdale Village, Queens, New York!

These guys have a chance to be dominant forces in baseball ... and for that, they bear watching for the remainder of the season.

As for Stanton and Strasburg, will their first games be flukes? Can they continue to be successful? We will just have to wait and see. And the same goes for Heyward.

And as an aside to all of this, the news media has just picked up on the fact that the latest Playboy centerfold is the first one who was born in the 1990s!

Ah, youth ...