FORT MYERS, Fla. — Picked-up pieces after nine days at Fenway South . . .
■ Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer . . . John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison.
Hot-shot prospects Anthony, Campbell, and Mayer are Boston’s Baseball Beatles. They are the The Fab Three (prospect catcher Kyle Teel, the Ringo drummer of this Sox crop, was traded for Garrett Crochet).
All approximately 6 feet 3 inches, all drafted by Chaim Bloom, Anthony, Campbell, and Mayer dress side-by-side-by-side in the Red Sox clubhouse at JetBlue Park. They were together in Portland and Worcester last summer, and here in Fort Myers they walk together to the batting cages almost every day. After workouts and spring games, they go to the beach, watch movies, and eat dinner with one another.
Labeling these guys “highly touted’’ is an understatement. Anthony, Campbell, and Mayer are three of the top 25 prospects in all of baseball.
“Everybody’s watching them,’’ says manager Alex Cora. “Talk to any of our staff, our coaches. These guys are good. They’re humble, too. They do understand how it goes. They’re fun to be around. If you talk to the three of them, they have one goal. It’s to break camp with us.’’
None have ever played a game in the big leagues, but we’ll see a lot of Anthony, Campbell, and Mayer during Grapefruit League games, and Campbell has a shot to come north as the Red Sox’ starting second baseman.
Old-timers remember when Jim Rice and Fred Lynn were the next big things in the winter of 1974-75. That became a reality in the magical summer of 1975. We saw almost the same hype when the Killer B’s — Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Mookie Betts, and Andrew Benintendi — tore it up at McCoy Stadium in the second decade of this new century, then won a World Series with the 2018 Red Sox.
Now it’s Boston’s Baseball Beatles, who will be the talk of camp for the next month.
Twenty-year-old Anthony last year was named the No. 1 prospect in baseball. He weighs 216 pounds and hit .344 in 35 games of Triple A last summer. He went to the same high school (Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland) as Anthony Rizzo, and was Gatorade Florida Player of the Year in 2022. His father is a money manager, his mother a medical professional. He hits the ball hard, has been described as a “generational talent,’’ and a well-respected agent told one of my Hall of Fame friends that Anthony someday will be baseball’s first billion-dollar player. Think Tony Conigliaro. Playing right. But batting left.
Shortstop Mayer, drafted No. 4 overall in 2021, was the Sox’ top prospect two years ago, but shoulder and back injuries have slowed his ascent. He’s a 200-pound, lefthanded-hitting 22-year-old who went to the same high school (Eastlake — Chula Vista, Calif.) as Adrian Gonzalez and this past week hit a monster batting practice home run that clanged off a beyond-the-fence metal roof in David Ortiz territory. Mayer’s father is an investment banker, his mother a homemaker. He bears a remarkable resemblance to “Entourage’’ heartthrob Adrian Grenier and has “star’’ stamped on his forehead.
Campbell, like Betts a native of Tennessee, was drafted in the fourth round in 2023 after playing one year at Georgia Tech (he remembers having a good series at Boston College in 2023 when it snowed in Brighton) and has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the Sox system. His father is a school teacher, his mother an accountant. He plays both middle infield positions and can move to the outfield. He has an unorthodox righthanded swing but hits the ball hard and far. He’s going to get a long look this spring.
“I’m ready for the opportunity, for sure,’’ Campbell says.
There’s competition to get to the big leagues first, and Campbell may have the inside track, but the top prospects seem to be enjoying their shared experience.
“It’s cool,’’ says Mayer. “You feel more comfortable doing it with people you’ve been playing with and we’re all super excited and ready to go.’’
■ Quiz: 1. Name four players since 1980 who were named All-NBA (first, second, or third team) and Rookie of the Year in their first season; 2. Name eight Harlem Globetrotters who’ve had their numbers retired by the team (answers below).
■ The first period of last Saturday night’s USA vs. Canada 4 Nations Face-Off game was one of the most entertaining athletic spectacles these eyes have seen. Watching Matthew Tkachuk, then Brady Tkachuk drop the gloves in the opening seconds, then congratulate one another in the penalty box, was wildly entertaining. I know we’re not supposed to support this kind of thing, but it was a spectacular puck treat with a side dish of patriotism, and an homage to their father, Keith, who duked it out with the despised Claude Lemieux in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. Watching the Tkachuks, I couldn’t stop thinking of the fictional,yet intimidating Savage brothers of “Mystic River’’ fame. Oh, and the hockey was pretty good, too.
■ On that note, can we all agree that Sean McDonough — who broadcast the tournament for ABC/ESPN — is one of the best sportscasters in history, perhaps the most versatile of all time?
■ Enjoying their best season in almost 30 years, the Knicks are at TD Garden Sunday afternoon at 1, and this is their chance to stand up to Boston’s bullies. The teams are on a collision course for a second-round playoff series, and thus far the Celtics are the Knicks’ daddies. Boston demolished New York here, 132-109, on Opening Night, and again, 131-104, on Feb. 8 at Madison Square Garden. Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, averaging 24.7 points per game this season, has been a non-factor against the Celtics, averaging 10.5 points in 26 minutes of the routs.
■ Not very nice of Cora to toss Chaim Bloom under the bus in the wake of Rafael Devers’s DH petulance. After Devers claimed he’s being mistreated because the Sox pledged to play him at third when he inked a $313.5 million, 10-year contract, Cora reminded us that the deal was struck by Chaim. Yeesh.
■ Color me confused when readers are outraged by media “body-shaming’’ professional athletes. This is the life they choose, folks. Pro athletes are paid to be in top condition, and betray their contracts if they don’t take care of themselves.
■ Red Sox hitting coach Pete Fatse, speaking to the Globe on Vaughn Grissom: “I think you can visually see that his weight is up and the concentric impulse numbers.’’ For all you dopes who get hung up on batting average, we’re told that “concentric impulse numbers’’ quantify the amount of force applied over a specific period of time. I believe they are measured with a flux capacitor.
■ Pass Go! and collect $200 if you know that John Smoltz and Billy Wagner are the only pitchers in the Hall of Fame who’s had Tommy John surgery.
■ Michigan State’s Tom Izzo is moving up on Bobby Knight as the greatest Big Ten basketball coach ever. Izzo, the pride of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, has taken the Spartans to 26 consecutive NCAA Tournaments and made it to the Final Four eight times, winning it all once. One of the good guys of college basketball.
■ Good to see Geno Auriemma running up the score again at UConn. The Huskies’ wins over BU (86-32) and Seton Hall (96-36) must have been special treats.
■ Can’t wait to read “Magic in the Air,’’ a new book on the history of the dunk by Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Mike Sielski. The author characterizes the dunk as “basketball’s consummate symbol of superiority’’ and reminds us that the shot was outlawed in high school and college from 1967-76 — a clear attempt to limit the prowess of UCLA’s unstoppable Lew Alcindor (who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). I saw my first dunk in 1964, when Westford Grey Ghost center Skip Coffin stole a pass near midcourt and went in uncontested against Bill Shaughnessy’s Groton High Crusaders. Coffin’s younger brother, Chris, later starred at UMass alongside another gifted forward named Julius Erving.
■ Pet Peeve Dept.: When an athlete signs a big contract, let’s not waste time calculating that the newly wealthy athlete will now make $2 million per home run, or $10,000 per at-bat. It doesn’t work that way, folks. When a boxer wins a $5 million purse for a first-round knockout, it’s not fair to claim he made $5 million for three minutes of work. Years, sometimes decades, of practice, training, and honing one’s craft go into every performance. When anyone asks me how long it took to write today’s column, I tell ’em, “71 years.’’
■ Congrats to longtime Celtics vice president Jeff Twiss, who’s been named recipient of the Basketball Hall of Fame’s prestigious John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award, presented annually by the Hall since 1973. A Green Teamer since 1981, Twiss is the last active Celtics employee hired by Red Auerbach. Others who’ve received this award include Bob Cousy, Curt Gowdy, Satch Sanders, and Dave Gavitt.
■ Quiz answers: 1: Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, David Robinson, Tim Duncan (Bird and Duncan were first team); 2: Goose Tatum, Marques Haynes, Curly Neal, Tex Harrison, Geese Ausbie, Meadowlark Lemon, Lou Dunbar, Wilt Chamberlain.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.
