Mismatch made in heaven

Beckett faced seven pasty-white Northeastern University batters at City of Palms Park yesterday and only two put the ball in play. Center fielder David Gustafson blooped a single to right on the first pitch of the game and DH Frank Pesanello grounded to first. The other five Northeastern hitters -- solid players all -- looked like Pedroia posting up the Diesel.

A similar scene will take place tonight when the Boston College Eagles step in to take their hacks against Daisuke Matsuzaka, who may or may not be the greatest pitcher who ever lived.

Just not fair.

This is a nice reminder of how hard it is to make it to the major leagues. It's a demonstration of the great baseball food chain: something that's easy to forget until we see a good Division 1 college hitter stepping in against a Josh Beckett.

"The guys I played with in rookie ball, the worst players, were 100 times better than anybody I ever played with in high school," said 40-year-old Curt Schilling. "When I signed, I was told that 1 out of every 10,000 kids that plays baseball gets drafted. One out of every 100,000 kids that play baseball make it to the big leagues. Something like that."

Donnelly toiled in the minors for more than 10 years before getting his first taste of the big leagues. He knows that every man with a big league locker represents thousands who played the game but were not good enough to advance.

"The math has all been done," said Donnelly. "Little League. High school. College. Then minors. There's a lot of players in the minor leagues that could play in the big leagues, but never get a chance. Once you get there, it's about getting a shot. When you get the shot, you've got to make the most of it. You might not get another one."

"Baseball's the one sport that everybody played," added Schilling. "That's why we have so many hecklers in our sport. If I had a dollar for every guy who told me, 'Oh, yeah, I was going to turn pro, but I hurt my arm,' I'd have more money than I have now."

Veterans of the Northeastern varsity team won't have delusions when they look back at their baseball careers. Yesterday they had a chance to see major league-caliber pitching, up close and personal.