From Hunter: Itching for the Season to Start
March 9, 2008 by Hunter Pence
Filed under Baseball
Hey everyone!
So, we are just three short weeks away from our season opener in San Diego and I’m already itching to get on that plane to head out west.
I made a couple of appearances on ESPN this week, starting by doing a phone interview on ESPN News and finishing up on First Take on Friday. Doing interviews is actually a lot of fun, especially on ESPN because I still have to pinch myself somedays that I’m lucky enough to be playing this game everyday … and being on ESPN is pretty cool.
To recap the past week, we played some pretty good teams from the American League, starting off with the Bronx Bombers on Monday. There’s always a different kind of energy out there when those guys are around. Jeter, A-Rod, Rivera and Posada … seeing them across the way is pretty special. Tuesday I had the day off but we played against Detroit and their high-powered offense. That lineup has to be one of the top two in the entire American League. They are stacked from top to bottom and I would not want to be a pitcher facing that lineup!
Wednesday, I was back in the lineup against the Tampa Bay Rays. They are going to surprise some people this year as they have some pretty good starters on their pitching staff and Carlos Pena came out of nowhere and hit over 40 homers last year … keep your eye on those guys. Thursday, we faced a strong Cleveland Indians club – man can they hit! They were so close to reaching the World Series last year and facing the reigning AL Cy Young Winner in CC Sabathia wasn’t easy.
He held us scoreless for the three innings he was on the mound and was pretty impressive. Friday we had a rematch against the Yankees on the road and ended up walking out of there with a win. Shawn Chacon pitched against his former club and threw groundball after groundball and that’s always great to see.
Over the next couple of weeks, you will start to see the starting pitchers go longer and position players go a little deeper into the game in preparation for the regular season – which is fine by me because i’ll take all the at-bats I can get!
Until next week!
Hunter
Prior topic, but I can’t believe no one suggested Hunter and the Punter for Darin’s nickname.
Enjoy being his teammate. There are very few like him.
Hunter;
Enjoyed watching you hit against our Yankees.
Maybe you’ll get another opportunity in October?
Stranger things have happened. You have a lot of fans in NY from your Valleycat days.