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Nationals spring training Date published: 3/20/2008 By RICH CAMPBELL BY RICH CAMPBELL VIERA, Fla.-- Dozens of Washington Nationals minor league players streamed onto the practice fields at the team's training complex yesterday while the Florida sun was still rising. There were no autograph seekers, no star-struck fans and no fanfare. It was hardly the setting in which you would expect to find a player fresh off an impressive performance on national TV.But here was Justin Maxwell, practicing bunting in front of only a handful of players' relatives. Unless you had seen it for yourself, or on ESPN, you never would have known that he hit a home run, made a dazzling diving catch and threw out a runner at home plate against the vaunted Detroit Tigers less than 24 hours earlier. Yesterday's three hours in the spotlight, followed by a return to the obscurity of minor league camp, is just the latest bit of excitement and change in a seven-month stretch in which Maxwell's personal life and professional life have evolved. As he chomped on a roast beef sub during his lunch break yesterday, Maxwell compared his life now to that of a year ago, when he was just an outfield prospect with a bare professional resume. "It's different, to say the least," he said. A smile crossed his face as he spoke, and why shouldn't it? Life is good. In his first full season as a professional last year, he was the only player in all of minor league baseball to hit 25 homers, 25 doubles and steal 25 bases. For that, he was rewarded with the team's minor league player-of-the-year award and a September call-up to the majors. He didn't disappoint. Maxwell hit .269 in 26 at-bats, including a pinch-hit grand slam in his third at-bat. He also homered off Tom Glavine, a future Hall of Famer, in the final week of the season against the New York Mets in a Nationals' victory that dimmed the Mets' playoff hopes. "You can see what he did when he was able to play a full year," said Bobby Williams, Nationals director of player development. "It was nice for him to get a taste in September and get a little success and see what it's like in the big leagues and how players approach the game."
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