My favorite player growing up was Andy Pettitte. I loved watching him play, I pretended to be him in my backyard with my friends, I even wrote him a letter once. Andy’s recent retirement was hard for me but it did create an opening in the favorite player department, an opportunity Rays’ outfielder Sam Fuld is taking full advantage of.
Sam Fuld is a 29 year old New Hampshire native and Stanford grad. Coming into this season, he had 31 hits in 98 career games in the big leagues and 649 hits in 619 career games in the minors. This season, he is hitting .321 so far and is in the AL league lead with 5 stolen bases. He is playing a killer defensive left field….center field…and right field diving after everything and getting to a vast majority of them and, on April 11th, had one of the best games I’ve seen in a long time and won a spot in my heart.
Last night, April 11th, Sam Fuld went 4 for 6, getting his first career 4 hit game and raising his average nearly 100 points. In his first AB, Fuld flew out to right field. In his second trip, he wrapped a 3-run HR around Pesky Pole in Fenway Park, his first homer since 2009. In his third AB, he doubled to centerfield. In his fourth AB, he tripled over the head of Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury, putting him only a single short of the cycle. In his fifth plate appearance, he flew out to left. In his sixth and final at bat of the night, up 15-4 on the Red Sox, Fuld hit a liner down the left field line for a hit. I would wager that just about any other player, let alone a career minor leaguer like Fuld, would have stopped at first base, gotten credit for the cycle, and contentedly put their name in the record books. I for one, would not blame them for a second for doing so. Fuld, however, sprinted to second for his second double of the night, thereby denying himself the cycle, putting the team first (even in a 15-4 game) and earning a spot as the frontrunner for my new favorite player.
Dan Henderson has been hit in the head too many times. As told in this piece by Joe Brescia of the New York Times, Henderson is a mixed martial arts (MMA) professional fighter who spends some of his time training professional NFL and MLB players. Some baseball players who have done MMA training in the offseason include Adam Dunn, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Russell Martin, and Brad Penny.
Brescia interviewed Henderson in the article to discuss the benefits of an MMA workout for pro baseball players. Among the things Henderson cited were working new and different groups of muscles, increasing cardio ability, getting in good shape, learning to tolerate pain, and developing better focus. All fine and good. Here, however, is where Henderson looses me. Henderson claims that his MMA training helped Brad Penny with strategy saying:
“It might give Brad a little more confidence when he’s pitching inside… he’s prepared in case anyone rushes the mound.”
That right there might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever read. Really. And I’ve read some stupid stuff. The idea that Brad Penny is afraid to throw inside on batters for fear of getting beat up if he hits them and that he is engaged in martial arts training to overcome that fear is one of the most asinine sentiments I’ve ever heard/ read/ whatever. I have no doubt that there is benefit to MMA training for baseball players. I have every doubt that this is the reason why.
Here are some cool pictures a friend showed me of a couple of big leaguers from a few years ago. The difference is striking:
Jason Giambi:
Jayson Werth:
Nomar Garciaparra:
-Max Frankel
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