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Rich Glickstein/rglickstein@thestate.com/The State
USC first baseman No. 47 Nick Ebert, middle
GoGamecocks.com
Dyson, Ebert set to return to Gamecocks
But USC loses two more signees to the pros as Hall, Myers reach deals
South Carolina pitcher Sam Dyson
Jim R. Bounds/AP
Written by SETH EMERSON and STEVE WISEMAN
semerson@thestate.com and swiseman@thestate.com
Posted on 08.18.09
Update
In addition to Sam Dyson and Nick Ebert returning to USC, junior Parker Bangs is also coming back after not signing a pro contract. Bangs was taken in the 46th round by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Gamecock signees Adrian Morales, Colby Holmes and Christian Walker have chosen college instead of professional baseball and will enter their first season at South Carolina.
It appears pitcher Sam Dyson will be returning to Columbia for his junior season.
Dyson spent Monday moving into an apartment in Columbia, according to his father, Sid Dyson.
Dyson was a 10th-round pick by the Oakland Athletics in this year’s Major League Baseball draft, but the deadline for draftees to sign with their pro teams was midnight Monday.
Sid Dyson said that while he expected to speak to the A’s, he doesn’t anticipate his son signing.
“We’re ready to go to school,” he said.
Another Gamecock, first baseman Nick Ebert, also was set to return to school. The New York Yankees picked Ebert, who hit 23 home runs this past spring, in the 32nd round.
While the returns of Dyson and Ebert were expected, so were the losses of two recruits, which became official early Monday.
Pitcher Brooks Hall of T.L. Hanna High in Anderson, and catcher Wil Myers of High Point, N.C., joined the parade of USC signees who turned pro.
A fourth-round selection by Milwaukee, Hall signed his contract Monday in Anderson on a piece of land revered in his family. Hall’s grandfather, James Hall, suffered a heart attack and died while on a tractor preparing a baseball field five minutes from Brooks’ house. Brooks Hall signed his Brewers contract on that spot.
“He was a huge baseball fan,” Brooks Hall said. “He would have loved to have been here. He went to all my games. It was a big significance to sign where he died. I know he was watching down.”
Hall received a $700,000 signing bonus, more than three times the amount Major League Baseball slotted for that draft position.
Even though it came down to deadline day before he signed, Hall wasn’t worried about a deal being struck. He and Lee Long, his advisor from Columbia’s Palmetto Sports Management Group, were in constant contact with Brewers officials in the weeks leading up to the deal.
Giving up his scholarship to USC wasn’t easy, Hall said. But the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream was too good to pass up.
“It was a hard decision because coach (Ray) Tanner and coach (Chad) Holbrook are really nice guys, and I like them a lot,” Hall said. “But this opportunity came up. I just want to play baseball for my whole life. If you get an opportunity to do this, you’ve got to do it.”
Myers, a third-round pick by Kansas City, received a $2 million signing bonus from the Royals to forgo his college eligibility. Considered by some scouts to have first-round talent, Myers received a bonus that far exceeded the $380,700 figure the MLB office recommended for that draft position.
South Carolina had already lost two key players in the days after the draft: catcher Justin Dalles (15 homers), who went in the sixth round to the Baltimore Orioles, and outfielder DeAngelo Mack (.361 batting average and 14 homers), who went in the 13th round to the Yankees.
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