Ryan Jaroncyk: 'A Major League shortstop waiting to happen'

It’s been 30 years since the New York Mets No .1 draft pick quit baseball. Drafted at age 18, out of baseball at age 20. This is the story of Ryan Jaroncyk.

Hate.

It’s a powerful word. But that is the word Ryan Jaroncyk once used to describe his feelings about baseball.

Jaroncyk never truly hated baseball. He would later confess that the sport is boring — in his opinion — and the anger, contempt, and disgust he felt when playing, well, that was personal; baseball was a schism between a father and son, a subject that remains off-limits, at least in the handful of interviews he’s done over the past three decades.