Talent notwithstanding, not everyone is eligible for Major League Baseball's First-Year Player Draft, more commonly known as the June amateur draft. A lot of fans might not know, for instance, that college players at a four-year institution are ineligible until completing their junior year. Unless, of course, they are within 30 days of their 21st birthday.

Some people may look at that rule and ask why professional sports leagues like the NBA or NHL don't implement similar draft restrictions. Read the many other eligibility rules, however, and Major League Baseball isn't exactly all about the kids.

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And yet, there isn't much of a public outcry to stop baseball from drafting players just out of high school or taking kids right out of college before they've graduated. To be sure, America's pastime almost seems impervious to the same slings and arrows flung annually at the NBA.

On June 28, the NBA will be holding its draft in Minneapolis, Minn. Only two high school players, East St. Louis High's (Ill.) Darius Miles and Washington Union High's (Calif.) DeShawn Stevenson have made themselves eligible for selection. According to Baseball America, there are more than 100 high school baseball players likely to be taken in next week's three-day MLB draft.

So why doesn't baseball get the same amount of grief as the NBA does for allowing underclassmen to skip or skip out of college?

"I think it's because we have the minor leagues," says pitcher Josh Beckett, a 1999 graduate of Spring High (Texas), who was the No. 2 overall pick by the Florida Marlins in last June's draft. "Nobody really goes right to the pros, so the spotlight isn't on them right away."

Beckett, who's presently in the Marlins' minor league system, signed for $3.6 million last year.

But his point is well taken. Toiling in Pittsfield, Mass., or Rancho Cucamunga, Calif., certainly isn't as high profile as playing at the LA Forum or Madison Square Garden. What's more, even the most successful teen and college-age minor league baseball players don't generally pal around with a bunch of millionaire teammates, ink head-spinning endorsements or date Madonna.

"Let's face it, if you're a really good baseball player in college or high school, you have to go out there and prove it all over again in the minor leagues," says J.P. Ricciardi, the assistant general manager of the Oakland A's. "There's very little instant gratification of going right to any level of professional baseball. Baseball is a very humbling game. There are just so many ways to fail and, probably more importantly, you have a lot of time on your hands to think about it. The vast majority of these guys disappear from the spotlight, at least for a while."

Ricciardi finds another draft reality even more sobering. Currently, teen and college-age amateur baseball prospects, like their hockey counterparts, are permitted to take on family advisers who serve as a "spokesperson" during the period preceding their decision to sign with a pro team or not. Most of these advisers, according to Ricciardi, are registered agents who represent professional players. As soon as a prospect decides to sign, this "spokesperson" often negotiates their contract. If a basketball or football player enters into such a relationship, either after graduating high school or at any time during college, that player forfeits their college eligibility.

"If a guy represents 10 guys in the big leagues and is speaking on behalf of your son, I think he's an agent," says Ricciardi. "You know, walks like a duck and looks like a duck. Must be a duck!

"If a college football or basketball player has any kind contact with an agent and they talk any kind of money, [the player's] ineligible. That's a double standard that's had me perplexed for years."