Baseball painting Andre Ethier MLB outfielder for Los Angeles Dodgers art
Andre Ethier is a MLB
left-handed outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He’s a he’s a 2-time All-Star with a Silver
Slugger and a Gold Glove in his history. Andre does have an interesting ritual before
every game—ever since he was in the minors—he eats a peanut butter and honey
sandwich on wheat bread and two spoonfuls of tuna. One of the interesting things Ethier has said
about himself is, “I wasn't an all-American, and I wasn't drafted until the
second round. I wasn't that guy everybody said to watch out for the next couple
of years because I was going to make a big impact. I guess that lights a little
fire under you and makes you want to show what you can do.”
Ethier has played his whole
major league baseball with the LA Dodgers.
He did start in the Oakland farm system
but he’s never did play in the Major League with Oakland and started with the Dodgers in 2006.
There is something valuable in a
player that has only played for one team. They seem more real, not a rent-a-player,
moving from one team to another. They
care more about their own team. In his
eight years with the Dodgers he has seen the good, the bad and the ugly – the
success in October and the failures that can start in the July’s - and the
seasons with the injuries.
Because he has been able to
perform under pressure he was given the nickname “Captain Clutch”. In one season he had six walk-off hits which
included four walk-off home runs that tied the Major League record for most in
a season. When asked about it in a Sporting
News interview he said, “It’s one of those funny things. People understand
that I’m pretty intense when I go up there, pretty focused and locked in; I can
have that tight, whiteknuckled- grip look to me. I wasn’t that good in those
situations early in my career; I was awful in those big, game-changing at-bats.
I think I established that you can learn to become good at that but it takes a
certain easiness and calmness to do it. There’s nothing better than having a
feeling going up there: I want to be in that situation; I can’t wait to get
that at-bat. Then you hit the ball and you look as you run around the bases—you
just ended a game like that with one swing. It’s a great feeling. You’ve got to
want to be in that situation because a lot of times you’re going to fail. But
it’s what you look for. If anything, I’ve shown that I’m able to handle that
situation and come through.” A couple of
his accomplishments: He broke the Dodger
record for most consecutive at-bats with a hit. He’s the only Dodger to have
more than 30 doubles in six consecutive seasons.
As Don Mattingly, manager of the
Los Angeles Dodgers said, “It’s like you’d rather have Andre up with the game
on the line in the ninth…” Mattingly
continued, “That’s kind of the thinking there. You save for the biggest at-bat
in the ninth.” This gives the Los
Angeles Dodger fans those great “Captain Clutch” late-inning heroics.
There has been some question about Ethier batting against
left-handers. In a GQ article
Andre addressed a the question asked by Nathaniel Penn : “Against right-handed pitchers, your numbers
are spectacular. Against left-handed pitchers, you've struggled throughout your
career. This spring your manager, Don Mattingly, had to defend you and affirm
that he's not going to platoon you this season—i.e., bench you when the Dodgers
are facing a left-handed starting pitcher. At this point in your career, how do
you go about improving your ability to hit lefties?
[This area] is one where I think more than anything this
spring we—I mean me and [Dodgers hitting coach] Mark McGwire—have been working
really hard. Nothing mechanical, just more the mental side: visualizing and
making ourselves better and really figuring out a way to just be confident in
all situations.
Sometimes as a baseball player or just an athlete in general
you stick to the things you do well and you keep practicing those things. Those
areas where you have issues you try to fix 'em but at the same time you try to
limit your exposure to those. But in baseball you gotta go up there and face
everyone in every situation. I think it's a thing where now lefties are coming
out of the bullpen earlier in the game to face left-handed hitters. There's
maybe two lefties in the bullpen that are there every day just to try to get
you out when those big at-bats are coming. You gotta learn those guys; it's
just how the game's really been evolving.”
Although he is not having his best offensive season he does
have a good perspective on his play.
Andre said, “I just want to take advantage of every day that I'm in the
lineup.”