Friday, May 24, 2013
At Home Plate
Torii Hunter interview outtakes
Written by Bjoern Hartig (Contact & Archive) on March 15, 2009
  

ESPN has a few outtakes from an interview with Torii Hunter that did not make the magazine:

KM: Are your children taking after you athletically?
TH: Definitely. My son Darius is 14, and he's ranked in the country in the high jump, 200 and 100. My other boys are playing baseball, and they work hard, man. But it isn't the same, because they've got that damn PlayStation. They stay in the house and play all day. When I was a kid, we always went outside and made up games. We put tape on a concrete wall and pitched a tennis ball to a hitter in front of the wall. We called the game Strike Out. I didn't go to football or baseball camps. I developed my skills in the streets, baby.

...

KM: You've won eight Gold Gloves. But do you remember your worst play?
TH: I was in Detroit, and Magglio Ordóñez hit the ball high to centerfield. I knew I had it, so I tried to be smooth and catch it all sweet, and it went over my head. Here I am, a Gold Glove centerfielder, looking around for the ball as the guy's circling the bases. I actually put that glove in the microwave for 20 minutes and let it burn because I didn't want to blame myself.

KM: After you make a mistake, do you ever think, Please hit the next one to leftfield?
TH: There's one day I'll never forget. Back when Mike Mussina was on the Orioles, he was a doctor. He cut everyone up. I was on the Twins, and Mussina had 15 K's that day, including one against me. There were two outs in the ninth, and David Ortiz was up. I was in the hole, rooting for Ortiz to strike out, thinking, Throw the curveball. He can't hit it! Ortiz struck out, and I jumped up and down, and David looked at me like, What the hell are you doing, T?

That Torii Hunter is quite a character. If this are the outtakes, I wonder what has made it into the magazine?

I was a bit sceptical when the Angels signed Hunter (and five years may still turn out to be too much), but if you believe clubhouse chemistry is important, I doubt that you can find someone better than Hunter.



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