Texas Rangers draft paralyzed Georgia player

[.infamous]

The Texas Rangers drafted University of Georgia outfielder Johnathan Taylor on Wednesday in the 33rd round of baseball's amateur draft.

Doesn't sound like anything out of the ordinary until you know this: Taylor, a junior from Acworth, Ga., was partially paralyzed this spring when he suffered a broken neck in an outfield collision with teammate Zach Cone.

The Rangers had selected Cone in the second round of the draft.

Cone and Taylor are friends, but their collision March 6 in a game against Florida State left Taylor paralyzed. According to The Dallas Morning News, he is unlikely to walk again and is considered a tetraplegic, because the paralysis affected all his extremities.

He is being treated at Atlanta's Shepherd Center, the newspaper reported.

Meantime, Rangers director of amateur scouting Kip <Censored>g told ESPNDallas.com that his team was trying to do something nice, though had Taylor not been injured he likely had the talent to play professionally: "He's a great kid, and he's going through a terrible time in his life and we thought this would be something to uplift him. I've seen the kid play since high school, he was a great player at Georgia."

Taylor's college coach, David Perno, echoed what <Censored>g said, according to ESPN.com: "J.T. is definitely a player worthy of getting drafted. He's been a big part of our program, and we are all very excited for him. When I talked to him after he got the call, he was in the middle of his rehabilitation work, laughing and having a good time and was thrilled to be drafted."

He prefaced that comment to the website by saying, "This was truly a classy move and a great gesture on the part of the Texas Rangers organization."

Read more: http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2011-06-08/texas-rangers-draft-paralyzed-georgia-player?icid=maing-grid7%7Caim%7Cdl5%7Csec1_lnk2%7C69243#ixzz1Ojx4432Z

 

[footballplaya52]

Classy Move.

and LOL Kip Fagg

 

[cruzg24]

Wow what a great thing to do, this just reminds me when I have a bad day that there are people out there who have it so much harder than I do. Great job by the Texas Rangers, great organization.

 

[Pugz]

wow. thats great. hopefully he does get some job in the league or with texas. thats awesome.

 

[The Lone Granger]

Very classy move. His friend was drafted by them too, so that's a good moment for those two as well. Sad to see he'll never reach his dream of actually playing in the majors, but at least he's been drafted. Very classy move.

 

[Giantmetfan07]

lol amateur scouting Kip <Censored>g, lol.

anyway, very classy move by the organization.

 

[.s31t]

Great story.
Classy move to by the Rangers.
Something to uplift a kids spirits is great.
Wish things like this got more coverage in the world.

 

[lonesomefx]

this is really nice of the Rangers, and who knows. Maybe he will one day walk again and be an outfielder in Texas, I know it's doubtful, but you can't ever rule him out. It would be a really amazing story, but on topic. It's cool that he got drafted by the same team as his friend.