Choosing this year's Dandy Dozen Baseball Team and our players of the year was not easy.

While there may not have been a Stephen Strasburg (No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft by the Washington Nationals) here in the Bootheel, there were several talented players who had strong credentials for Player of the Year.

In the end, we chose three instead of our usual two (Aaron McCaig from Cooter, Holcomb's Corbin Clark and Heath Horvath from Senath-Hornersville), and even then there were still deserving candidates still out there -- Trey Bazzell was arguably the best player on a Kennett team that swept the Bootheel Conference, while Parker Watkins has one of the biggest bats in the area at Cooter. And that's not even mentioning standout hurlers like Tyler Thompson (South Pemiscot) and Ben Salas (Senath-Hornersville, Bootheel Conference Player of the Year).

That said, we have a legitimately talented group this year.

Gage Blue led the Tribe in batting average at a .383 clip, while Logan Dollins only got hotter as the year went on and was the lone freshman on the squad and Andy Lack might have been the area's most improved player, leading Kennett in earned-run average and batting in the .300 range while playing middle infield for the Indians.

Meanwhile, Aaron Booker was a dominant hitter at South Pem, while Cale Weeks led Campbell's perennially strong attack. Both have been burning opposing pitchers this summer for Dunklin County's American Legion team, showing what kind of talent they have.

And that's just the 12 best -- the honorable mentions didn't do too bad either.

The choices may have been hard, but the talent was deep and that makes for good baseball and entertaining games. And that's what's it about, isn't it?