With power alleys that measure 385 feet and a center-field fence that stands 400 feet from home plate, there are no cheap home runs at Sanderson High School in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“A lot of people think they get them at our place and rarely does it happen,” Sanderson baseball coach Todd Laughlin said.
That’s why Laughlin still marvels at one home run Alim McNeill slugged as a freshman, a towering opposite-field shot that cleared the fence in right-center with plenty of room to spare.
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McNeill, the Detroit Lions’ first of two third-round picks in last month’s NFL draft and the first in their rookie class to sign, blasted his share of homers during four seasons at Sanderson and, had football not been his calling, there’s a good chance he would be playing collegiate baseball somewhere this spring.
At Sanderson, one of the top baseball programs in the Raleigh-Durham area, McNeill started in right field for three varsity seasons and regularly hit No. 3 or 4 a lineup that for a time included current Minnesota Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers.
“He could hit it a long, long way,” Laughlin said. “And we’ve had some good players come through, but few with the power that he’s got. We play in a huge ballpark. … I’m sure it borders the dimensions of Comerica and that (home run he hit) as a freshman he was probably pushing more the 200-pound mark compared to the, what was it, 260, 270 he was his senior year.”
The Lions have three days of voluntary rookie minicamp Friday-Sunday in Allen Park, and with first-round pick Penei Sewell not expected to take part after he tested positive for COVID-19, McNeill and fellow defensive lineman, second-round pick Levi Onwuzurike, will be minicamp’s main attractions.
Both are expected to play significant roles in the middle of the Lions’ defensive line this fall, similar to how McNeill was once a middle-of-the-order hitter.
“I love baseball,” McNeill said in a Zoom with reporters on draft night. “Baseball was actually my first sport. I didn’t see myself as a big guy in the outfield, honestly. I seen myself as an athlete out there, just making plays, tracking balls down. But I was really just a really athletic player who had a good bat.”
McNeill said he batted about .335 as a senior, and Laughlin said McNeill was good enough to be recruited by North Carolina A&T and several smaller Division I schools.
Had he not been committed for football to North Carolina State, where he discussed playing both sports, he might have attracted interest from even bigger programs on the diamond.
“The bat always seemed more like a toothpick than what a regular bat looks like for an average high school guy,” Laughlin said. “So certainly an intimidating presence in the batter’s box and could really get down the baseline, so had the speed element as well, which certainly catches a lot of people off guard when you’re that big.”
Laughlin said McNeill’s intimidating size — he’s listed at 6 feet 2 and 320 pounds — and the ferocity with which he swung a bat were enough to convince many opponents to pitch around him.
“If you get into the baseball stuff, exit velocity and certainly distance and launch angle, Alim would really check all the boxes on there,” Laughlin said. “There have been few that have the exit velocity and power that he has.
“It’s crazy. It is. Especially when you stack him up against, with all due respect, the average high schooler, it’s a totally different thing. It’s a grown man.”
Ultimately, McNeill proved to be just as grown on the football field. He had 10 sacks in three seasons at N.C. State and projects as an athletic nose tackle in Detroit.
Laughlin said McNeill clearly picked the right sport, though he wouldn’t mind seeing McNeill take a few cuts in batting practice again.
“Anytime that you saw the ball in the air off his bat it was one of those kind of jaw-dropping moments,” Laughlin said. “That’s just the kind of power and strength he’s always had.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.