They were college teammates. Now one plays for the Mets and the other runs the Nationals

WASHINGTON — There were times when Marcus Semien would watch Paul Toboni during batting practice with the Cal Golden Bears — and just laugh.“He’d be out there on the left-field line, doing the Kevin Mitchell thing, just trying to barehand balls,” Semien said.“That’s a real thing,” Toboni said, more than a little sheepishly. “I mean, we were from the Bay Area. We’d have posters of Giants players in the clubhouse. And you know how it is: College seasons can be long, and you kind of need to mess around in the outfield during BP, and we all remembered the barehanded play Kevin Mitchell made running down the left-field line.”
He paused a second.“A lot of awesome memories,” Toboni said.Advertisement