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Gio Gonzalez wears shirt with old image of Nationals coach Steve McCatty posing for ‘Playgirl’
Steve McCatty could use the excuse "I was young; I needed the money" in trying to explain why he posed in swim trunks for the July 1984 edition of 'Playgirl' magazine. He was 31 years old and just a season away from his last pitch in the majors because of injury, so branching out into male modeling wouldn't have been a bad idea. (Especially with that blond mustache of his. Very Larry Bird.)
No matter why, he did the spread — many other major leaguers throughout the '80s did similar photo shoots — and the nearly sexy results are what you see, and what remains on the internet. Too bad for McCatty, the pitching coach of the Washington Nationals today, his players know quite well how to navigate the World Wide Web.
One of them struck beefcake gold in a wonderful post by Michael Clair at Baseball Prospectus, and everyone knew what had to happen next. Right-hander Dan Haren ordered shirts made, reporter Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post said. Obviously, it's been the talk of the Nationals clubhouse. Via the Washington Times:
The pitchers, who listen to McCatty trash talk them an awful lot, were thoroughly enjoying the entire thing.
McCatty, a former pitcher for the A’s, tried to let it roll off his back.
“I took the picture,” he said with a shrug.
“I could’ve done without that revelation,” quipped manager Davey Johnson.
McCatty "took the picture" himself? My money was on Rick Langford or Mike Norris.
Johnson later praised McCatty's 1984 body as "that good," along with the fact that McCatty had hair — two other revelations the skipper had been ignorant of. Some of the other comments were more complimentary:
“It’s pretty incredible,” Ryan Zimmerman said of the shirts. “It’s a perfect T-shirt, and what a picture. It’s one of the better T-shirts I’ve seen in the eight years I’ve seen them made.”
So, Invader Zim monitors T-shirt production lines when not manning the hot corner? (He probably means the other silly shirts that major leaguers have made to amuse themselves.)
“Utter joy. This is the best day of my life.” — Tyler Clippard, while wearing [the T-shirt]
Finally, there was this reaction:
“I threw up. I sent out a big group text to everyone. I think Cat’s pretty embarrassed.” – Jordan Zimmermann
McCatty hasn't been worked over this much since Billy Martin famously, if allegedly, overexerted the Oakland Athletics starting pitching staff in the early '80s. Speaking of which, look who else got the "Playgirl" treatment from the A's:
Rickey Henderson's scouting report should say "Has Bo Jackson thighs."
Check out the rest of Clair's post. It's a keepsake, even if it refers to George Brett's butt as "flat."
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Playing catch with kids in the stands is officially a baseball trend — now Bruce Chen is doing it
It's official! Pitchers playing catch with kids in the stands during batting practice is the hottest craze in baseball — sweeping the game faster than a team playing a three-game series with the Dodgers. (Sorry, Dodgers, but you have been swept three times in May).
Actually, it's a trend that started with those Los Angeles Dodgers, when Hyun-Jin Ryu played catch with a young fan named Deuce last week. Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals was next to get caught on camera doing it. Now we find Bruce Chen of the Kansas City Royals, who did it over the weekend when playing the Oakland Athletics.
Of course, the third time something happens it isn't as cool anymore. Just like with movies and Nas albums, the first one is still the best. But in this case, we'll point out two noteworthy things about Chen's effort: He's tossing the ball with A's fans, not Royals fans, which is a nice show of bi-partisan catch-playing. And he's playing with two kids, not just one.
This tell us it won't be long before the kids are lined up to play catch during batting practice like they line up for autographs.
BLS H/N: 7000 Coliseum Way via Cut4
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Athletics Nation
from SBNation
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Christo and the Great Tarp Experiment
Were the A’s correct to tarp off the upper deck of the Coliseum? Why did they do it? Could they have achieved a similar result in another, more creative way?
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Introducing Three New Contributors
Based on interest and the results of the front page writing contest, I have three new contributors I'm happy to say will be writing for AN on a weekly basis.
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Recap: Bears Fly, Tofu Dogs are Consumed, A’s win 1-0
Dan Straily outpitched Yu Davish today. Yoenis Cespedes hit a solo home run to dead center in the 3rd. And Sean Doolittle and Grant Balfour closed out a rare 1-0 victory deep in the heart of the Dallas metroplex.
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DLD 5-21-2013: Texas edition
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A's breeze to 9-2 victory over Rangers
The A's outhit, outpitched, outfielded, and outhustled the Rangers in a thorough demolition.
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MLB Video Spotlight
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Nakajima on reason for signing
Posted Dec 17 2012More: MLB video
