HallieStickels

The front doors were locked at Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church when Tyler Beede stopped during his late-night stroll on a rain-soaked Monday in Auburn, Mass.

So he took a seat on the steps and said a prayer.

Beede didn’t pray for the Toronto Blue Jays to meet his $3.5 million asking price before the midnight signing deadline for draft picks. He prayed only that his family and those of his friends and fellow Vanderbilt signees Kevin Comer and John Norwood would awake on Tuesday happy with their decisions.

Beede was. The 21st overall pick in June was the lone first-rounder not to sign. He cushioned the blow of Vanderbilt losing 11 of its SEC-record 12 players from the 2011 roster who were drafted, in addition to Monday deals reached by Comer and Shawon Dunston Jr.

“It’s been a crazy process,” said Beede, a 6-foot-4 right-hander who will get into Nashville on Friday after choosing the Commodores over a $2.5 million final offer from Toronto. “The last two months have made us grow up real fast and make big-boy decisions. But I wasn’t stressing at all. I wasn’t nervous because I had Vanderbilt to fall back on.

“It wasn’t a financial decision for me. I come from a middle-class family. My dad works two jobs and is almost always gone. My mom works. I understand $2.5 million is a lot of money. I understand minor-leaguers and even major-leaguers work hard to make that kind of money. But life is not without risk.”

Will Clinard, who was taken in the 30th round by the Twins, is the lone Vanderbilt player drafted coming back. SEC Pitcher of the Year Grayson Garvin (Rays), third baseman Jason Esposito (Orioles) and pitcher Jack Armstrong (Astros) agreed to deals on Monday, with Armstrong’s coming in the final hour.

Vanderbilt Coach Tim Corbin and his wife, Maggie, spent Monday at an Irish pub in Boston from 8 p.m. until after midnight. Corbin littered his table with food and electronics to follow signing news on Twitter and other Web sites.

The fact that Corbin was in Massachusetts, less than an hour from the Beedes, was no coincidence. He was in contact with Walter Beede, Tyler’s father, throughout the day Monday and was en route to visit the family Tuesday.

“We’re just going to make sure everything is OK, which it is, and put some closure on the whole thing,” said Corbin, whose team was 2-2 in its first College World Series appearance. “I always think it’s a win when you retain some of your players. It’s about recruiting them and then recovering some of players you recruited (after the draft). We had a few others sign — some unfortunate because they could have been back here had things been different.”

When Beede declined the Blue Jays’ last offer five minutes before the deadline, Toronto upped its offer to Comer, a right-hander pitcher from New Jersey and landed him for $1.65 million.

The Cubs reeled in Dunston, an outfielder and son of the ex-Chicago shortstop who attended summer classes at Vanderbilt, for $1.275 million.

Norwood (Seton Hall Prep, N.J.), an outfielder and 12th-round pick of Toronto, followed Beede’s lead and chose Vanderbilt over an offer of $800,000 that came moments before midnight. He said his asking price was $75,000-$100,000 more.

“You’ve got to go with your gut and go with your heart,” Norwood said. “Money isn’t everything. Physically, I think I’m ready (to turn pro). But mentally, I don’t know if I’m quite there. I’ll develop into a better person and player at Vanderbilt.”

Corbin said he now has three compelling candidates for his 2012 rotation in place with Beede, sophomore left-hander Kevin Ziomek and freshman left-hander Philip Pfeifer. Clinard and reliever Sam Selman are also good options, Corbin added, as is T.J. Pecoraro if he’s able to return from Tommy John surgery by mid spring.

Randy Moss should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. I believe this firmly, as a guy who watches an inordinate amount of football, who covers the game, and who does not have, deserve, or want a Hall of Fame vote. For most of the last 14 years, nobody could keep Moss out of the end zone. How can you keep him out of the Hall of Fame?

Yes, I absolutely think Moss should be inducted in his first year of eligibility. But I suspect he might have to wait. And on some level, that is fitting. In fact, I can’t think of anything that would sum up Randy Moss’s extraordinary career better than being denied first-ballot induction to the Hall of Fame.

* * *

There have been a lot of controversial players on NFL Draft day — every year brings a couple of new ones. It’s part of the overdone drama of that overcooked event. Brady Quinn sat in the green room for so long that it turned brown. ESPN spent weeks dissecting Tim Tebow’s game, leadership skills and 2036 presidential candidacy.

But we still haven’t seen anything quite like the controversy surrounding Randy Moss in 1998. Nobody doubted his pure talent. Nobody said “Well, in the right system … ” or “If he can overcome his lack of … ” This was a 6-foot-4 receiver who was the fastest man on the field and caught pretty much everything.

No, the controversy was always about his character. The question was uttered a million times: Is he worth it?

He’d had an incident with a girlfriend in high school. Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz wanted him desperately, but Moss was denied admission — that might have been the event that triggered Holtz’s resignation. Florida State took Moss, but he got kicked out for smoking pot.

Moss ended up at Marshall, which wasn’t even in Division I-A at the time. His career there felt like a cartoon — the NCAA could have allowed cornerbacks to carry handcuffs and pepper spray and they wouldn’t have stopped Moss. He became a Heisman finalist — as a receiver from Marshall! — and even managed to cause controversy there. He wore sunglasses to the indoor awards ceremony. The staid NFL averted its eyes. Is he worth it?

Moss famously fell to the 21st overall pick of that draft, to the Vikings.

This week, he retired with numbers that should make the draft-day argument seem silly: 954 catches, 14,858 yards, 153 touchdowns. But that’s the strange thing about Randy Moss. The argument never ended. It just got louder.

In his rookie year, playing a position that is notoriously difficult for first-year players, Moss might have been the most valuable player in the whole league. He had no chance of winning the award, of course. But look: The year before, the Vikings averaged 22 points per game and finished 9-7. They had a new quarterback (35-year-old Randall Cunningham, instead of Brad Johnson) and added Moss. They suddenly had the best offense in league history and should have made the Super Bowl. (They lost to the Falcons in overtime in the NFC title game).

Moss was still considered a jerk, kept in line only by Carter and coach Dennis Green. Sometimes people tried to change the narrative about Moss — he’s matured, he’s mellowed, he’s not the guy you think he was.

But I don’t think Moss ever really changed. He never stopped being moody. He never learned to trust the media. He always coasted when he didn’t think a pass was coming his way — and sometimes coasted when a pass did come his way.

When he had a decent team and quarterback, he was an All-Pro — he probably changed as many defensive game plans as any receiver in history. When he didn’t, like in Oakland, he was a lousy teammate.

Moss didn’t change. But I think the sports world changed. The way we watch football changed. Across all sports, fans saw more highlights and became far more statistically savvy than they had ever been. After years of screaming about low-character guys, we looked more at performance. Fantasy football exploded, and there are no loafing deductions in fantasy football.

In April 2007, the Patriots acquired Moss from the Raiders for a fourth-round pick. He was only 30 years old. He was only one year removed from a 60-catch, 1,005-yard season for a Raiders team that had lousy offensive weapons. I think the average fan saw that trade and thought the Patriots got a steal. And yet: all the Raiders got for him was that fourth-round pick. NFL teams obviously still asked: Is he worth it?

Well, he caught 23 touchdown passes that year and helped the Patriots win 18 straight games. Two years later he was grumbling about his contract again. When he got traded back to the Vikings last year, he immediately started griping about game plans, lashing out at coaches and, in a widely reported incident, chewed out a caterer. The Vikings cut him.

Was he worth it? Moss starred on teams that finished 15-1 (the ’98 Vikings) and 16-0 (those ’07 Patriots), the two highest-scoring offenses in the Super Bowl era. He played for six playoff teams in 14 years. He has 15 more touchdown catches than Hines Ward and Plaxico Burress combined.

Every statistical measurement of Moss’s career indicates that he is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But something tells me the old-school voters will make him wait. They will look at his history of taking plays off and looking out for himself and hold that against him.

Eventually, though, the Hall of Fame voters will have to accept what fans figured out and NFL teams reluctantly accepted: like him or hate him, Randy Moss was just too damn good. They made him wait until the 21st pick in 1998, but they will have to let him into the Hall of Fame. That should be a fascinating ceremony. Especially if he skips it.

Despite temperatures peaking at 100 degrees (37.78 degrees Celsius) at Mission Hills Country Club, the long-hitting Lincicome fired a flawless six-under-par 66 to set a sizzling pace with Lewis.

Lincicome, who won her first major title here two years ago, needed only 23 putts to surge to the top of the leaderboard while Lewis launched her bid with seven birdies and one bogey.

The duo ended a sun-baked afternoon in the California desert a stroke in front of Germany‘s Sandra Gal and Japanese Mika Miyazato.

American Jane Park and Japan‘s Chie Arimura were tied for fifth after carding 68s in the opening women’s major of the season.

Lincicome, who spectacularly eagled the par-five last to seal a one-shot victory at the 2009 Kraft Nabisco Championship, appeared to be in cruise control on Thursday.

“It was very easy,” the 25-year-old told reporters. “It was one of those days where I really didn’t have to think too hard and just everything kind of came naturally. My putting was amazing. I made everything.

“I probably only had two scary par saves. Other than that, it was really pretty easy-going and relaxing out there.”

Lincicome’s sole concern was how the sun-baked greens would hold up for the rest of the week after firming up considerably on Thursday afternoon.

FIRMING GREENS

“They’re really, really firm out there,” she said. “I’m hoping they’re going to put some water on them right when we get done, because I would hate for them to lose them.”

Asked if she had been bothered by the heat, Lincicome replied: “Luckily I’m from Florida so it wasn’t too bad, but there were times where I’m like: ‘All right, I gotta find the shade.’

Her good friend Lewis also coped well with the scorching spring temperatures, covering the back nine in three-under 33 to move into a tie for the lead.

“It was playing really hard, so I knew I just needed to hit some good golf shots and get some putts to fall,” said the 26-year-old who was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 11.

“That’s what happened. I just judged the numbers really well going into the greens, kind of hung in there and made par when I needed to.”