Week 18: Sean Doolittle

Sean Doolittle and his wife, the fantastic
Eireann Dolan, attend the 2018 MLB All-Star Game.

Thank goodness I have scouts working for me to find MLBoyfriends. I had no idea who I was going to choose today until my nephew Dan sent me this message:

Yes, that's right. It was 6:43 pm before I knew that Sean Doolittle was my MLBoyfriend of the week. I've said it before, in fact in the very first MLBoyfriend post of 2018, what baseball players do off the field can be more important than what they do on it. Today, Doolittle took to Twitter to speak out about the controversial messages other players have sent out over social media in the past. Ironically, Doolittle played absolutely no baseball last week. He has been on the DL since July 10th with a toe injury. However, to be fair, he has had a pretty good season so far with twenty-two saves. Even with missing the last twenty days, the ESPN fantasy baseball "Player Rater" ranks him as the tenth most valuable relief pitcher in MLB.

Here's Sean Doolittle's excellent tweets from today alternating with picture of him.*

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for baseball on twitter. It sucks to see racist and homophobic language coming from inside our league - a league I’m so proud to be a part of that I’ve worked really hard to make a more accepting and inclusive place for all our fans to enjoy.

— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) July 30, 2018

Sean Doolittle on the mound for the Washington Nationals.

We have to start caring as much about the content of the posts as we do about when they were made and how they came to light.

— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) July 30, 2018

I'm kind of over the whole beards on pitchers thing, but I actually like Doolittle's.

The answer isn’t for athletes to leave social media. Social media can be great for an athlete. I met my wife on twitter (long story). It helps athletes share their stories and personalities and connect with their community. Besides, it’s not like you can accidentally post a slur.

— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) July 30, 2018

Doolittle is working the full-on hipster look, and I'm there for it.

A lot of the tweets that have surfaced are from several years ago - from a time in their lives when they may not have realized the impact those words have. But as you learn from and grow out of that youthful indescretion, delete those posts to reflect that growth.

— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) July 30, 2018

I'm also there for his knickers. I believer all MLB players should be required
to wear them instead of long pants. This is baseball, not golf.

Between all the people you meet and the places you go, there is a lot of opportunity for personal growth in baseball. It’s entirely possible that those old posts no longer reflect that person’s views. But actions will speak louder than words.

— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) July 30, 2018

Doolittle with Spencer Kieboom. I have a soft spot for pictures of
pitchers and catchers together.

It’s a reminder that words matter, and that the impact the of words matter more than the intent. Rather than feeling like this platform makes us targets and we have to censor ourselves, find a way to use the platform to lift others up and make a positive impact.

— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) July 30, 2018

Week 17: Mike Trout

At the tender age of 26, Mike Trout played in his seventh All-Star Game. He hit a home run in the game, and while he hits a lot of home runs, this one was notable for a couple of reasons. First, Jacob deGrom, who is one of the best pitchers in the baseball was pitching. The other is that it prompted Bryce Harper, who is not known for his lack of ego, to admit Trout is the best player in the Major League Baseball. Harper was giving an interview from the field when Trout hit his dinger, and you can hear his commentary in this video.



Mike Trout took to social media during the game and posted a selfie from the field with fellow American League All-Stars and MLBoyfriends, Aaron Judge and Mookie Betts.

#AllStarGame is always something special. Thank you for the hospitality DC!!!

A post shared by Mike Trout (@miketrout) on Jul 17, 2018 at 9:09pm PDT

I love this photo of Trout taking that pic because he looks little standing
next to Aaron Judge--and Mookie Betts looks tiny. FYI: Trout is 6'2", 135lbs.

On the very same day that Mike Trout was enthusiastically participating in the biggest promotional event in baseball, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said that Trout was not doing enough promotion. 

“Mike has made decisions on what he wants to do, doesn’t want to do, how he wants to spend his free time or not spend his free time,” Manfred said in the hours before MLB’s All-Star Game at Nationals Park. “I think we could help him make his brand very big. But he has to make a decision to engage. It takes time and effort.”

Pretty much everyone including The Los Angeles Times, Deadspin, The New York Post, and even frickin' Gold Digest called bullshit on Manfred's comments. Even better, lots of folks took to social media to show why Mike Trout is not only the best player in baseball, he might be the best ambassador of baseball. Here's one of my favorite tweets:

A couple weeks ago at Camden Yards, I watched Trout pull a 6-year old out of the pregame crowd. He spent the next 15 minutes with the kid by his side during BP. Stretched with him, chatted with him. Even gave him his bat. Never seen anything like it. It looked like this. pic.twitter.com/eZhagoXeb4

— Eddie Matz (@ESPNeddiematz) July 18, 2018

For more, check out the Twitter hashtag: #MikeTroutMoments. Or this post aptly titled "Here's a bunch of videos of Mike Trout doing nice things for kids" from the USA Today sports blog For The Win's weekly feature, "Mike Trout Mondays".

Week 16: Kole Calhoun

I have two reasons for selecting Kole Calhoun as my MLBoyfriend. The first is that I love a Cinderella story in baseball. To put it kindly, Calhoun's season so far has been mediocre. His batting average so far is a measly .182. Now suddenly in July, his bat is getting hot.

Calhoun had a really good week last week. On Tuesday, July 10, he went three-for-four, with a home run, two RBIs, and three runs scored. He hit two home runs on Friday, July 13, which meant he alone scored all two runs the Angels scored in that game. He scored the winning run in the tenth inning of the game on Saturday, July 14.

Kole Calhoun makes a leaping catch on Saturday, July 14.

For the week, Calhoun had a .364 average, a 1.355 OPS, six RBIs and seven runs. He has only hit nine home runs all season and four of them were last week. He had a much better week than his superstar teammate (and two-time MLBoyfriend winner), Mike Trout. Last week, Trout had only a .282 average, .730 OPS, three runs, and no RBIs or home runs. 

Mike Trout passes the MLBoyfriend torch to Kole Calhoun.

Week 15: Yasiel Puig

This week's MLBoyfriend, unlike last week's, put up some decent stats. Yasiel Puig had a very good .368 batting average and 1.158 OPS with three runs, two home runs, and eight RBIs. However, the real reason he is being selected is that he was featured in the ESPN Magazine Body Issue.

The Body Issue really is the gift that keeps giving for a blogger who has lots of other things he should be doing. Sure, technically, it came out two weeks ago not last week. But since his teammates have pin-up pics of Puig in the dugout, I figure he's still fair game.

Week 14: Dallas Keuchel

Dallas Keuchel did not have a very good week last week. He started in one game in which he gave up seven hits, six runs, and three walks. Since he only pitched 5.1 innings, that left him with a miserable ERA of 10.13. He's had better weeks--like when the Astros won the World Series last year.

So, why is Keuchel my MLBoyfriend this week? Because I'm on vacation and don't want to spend a lot of time on this post. Fortunately, ESPN has done the work for me by featuring Keuchel in their annual Body Issue.

Honored to be chosen for the 2018 @espn #BodyIssue ...it was a true team effort. Big thanks to the creative eye behind the lens @kurtiswarienko (link in bio)

A post shared by Dallas Keuchel (@kidkeuchy60) on Jun 24, 2018 at 9:14pm PDT