By Ron Kantowski

Published Wednesday, June 10, 2009 | 4 p.m.

Updated Wednesday, June 10, 2009 | 7:36 p.m.

NOW

Now that he is being represented by Superagent -- a k a Scott Boras -- it's going to take an act of Congress and an all-access backstage pass from the Steel Wheels tour to get a few words with Stephen Strasburg, the San Diego State pitcher who can throw a baseball through a brick wall.

Boras wouldn't even let him out of the hermetically sealed mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnalls porch to hang out with baseball commissioner Bud Selig after the Nationals made him the first pick in the major league draft on Tuesday.

I liked it a lot better when Stephen Strasburg was representing himself.

Here's the hoop I had to jump through to speak with Strasburg before the second game of a three-game series against UNLV at Wilson Stadium last year.

Me: (Upon spotting a strapping kid who looked like he might be able to throw a baseball through a brick wall): "You Strasburg?

Strasburg: Yup.

Me: Got a minute to talk?

Strasburg: Sure.

He spent the next 20 minutes telling me how he learned to throw a baseball through a brick wall.

When we were done, the ground began to shake, like Mount St. Helens was about to erupt down the left-field foul line where Strasburg and I had been talking.

It was Tony Gwynn, the San Diego State coach, coming to chew me out for not going through proper channels.

THEN

This anecdote may not be original, but there was one game during my American Legion career where we were facing a pitcher who could throw a baseball through a brick wall. He struck out Ralph Rewers, our leadoff hitter, on three pitches. The third one was a called strike.

Ralph turned to say something to the umpire.

"That last one sounded low."