Every November in Baxley, Georgia, the fastest man in baseball heads to the starting line, convinced this is going to be the time. Byron Buxton can run from home plate to first base in 3.44 seconds. He can round the bases on an inside-the-park home run in 13.85 seconds. What he can’t do – the only thing it seems these days – is beat his older brother in a race.

Petty Officer First Class Felton Buxton, an engineer and recruiter for the United States Navy, is 30 years old. And when Byron heads to Baxley after a season with the Minnesota Twins, for whom he’s finally looking the part of a star after a stop-and-go start to his major league career, Felton returns to their home in Georgia, a place so far off the beaten path it doesn’t have cell service. Both know what comes next.

“Every year,” Byron said, “he comes out and does the same thing.”

“We just start talking noise to each other,” Felton said, “and line up.”

“He ran track in high school,” Byron said. “Everything he does is perfect.”

“It’s nothing but an open field,” Felton said.

“About 60 yards,” Byron said.

“And we just run,” Felton said.

Considering everything the 23-year-old Buxton does with his legs – the rapidity with which he churns them on a jailbreak bunt, the efficiency with which they pump on one of his signature catches in center fielder and, of late, the stability they provide as his swing looks like it’s catching up to his baserunning and glove – the fact that he can’t beat his brother in a footrace eats at him. At top speed, Buxton covers more than 30 feet per second on a baseball field, and yet when squaring off against his brother, he chokes on dust.

“We just look at each other and smile, really,” Felton said. “For me, it’s just like, I still got it.”

One of these days, Buxton is convinced he’s going to beat his brother. It took until he was 17 years old to clock a faster time than his dad. All of it seems to be something of a pattern: Byron Buxton may not beat you immediately, but give him enough time and him winning is inevitable.

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View photos Minnesota Twins center fielder Byron Buxton (25) catches a fly ball by Cleveland Indians designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion (10) during the seventh inning Aug. 15, 2017, in Minneapolis. (AP) More

Much as he tried to ignore his reality, to detach himself from the hopes others foisted on him, Byron Buxton couldn’t escape them. He was the No. 2 overall pick in Major League Baseball’s 2012 draft and signed for $6 million. While his physical tools made him look like a diamond, his skills were more zircon, and minor league pitchers never exposed them. The Buxton hype train was oversold by the time he arrived in Minneapolis. It emptied quickly when he followed a mediocre rookie season in 2015 with an inconsistent 2016.

“No matter how many times I told myself the expectations and pressure don’t get to me, they’re still in the back of your head,” Buxton said. “ As you’re playing, you’re like, ‘I’m gonna do this.’ You change your game to live up to the expectations. The biggest thing I learned was not to play to those expectations. It took me two years to realize you can’t play the way that you want to play and hit .300 or stealing so and so bags. You’ve got to be yourself.”

Problem was, Buxton didn’t know exactly what that meant. Earlier this season, as he stepped to the plate with a batting average that began with a 1, Buxton sported a leg kick – the sort used by power hitters around baseball. If it was good for them, maybe it could be good for him? He was the being antithesis of himself, and the failure of the kick compounded his misery.

“When you see [batters] 1 through 8 lace the ball and you go up there and say, ‘You have no idea what you’re doing,’ it’s a sucky feeling,” Buxton said. “I finally realized something’s got to change. Whatever you do, put all your work into it.”

Already Minnesota had discussed sending him to Triple-A once again, hopeful something would click. Twins hitting coach James Rowson implored the Twins front office to hold off. He had a plan. And a pupil.

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