Old Time Family Baseball

Samara Pearlstein:

Everyone has that one ballplayer who’s just perfect for them, right? Sure. Absolutely. Totally normal aspect of fandom.

Anyways, for me, that perfect player was Brad Ausmus. I’m a Tigers fan; he played for the Tigers. I grew up in the Boston area and was also a Red Sox fan; Ausmus grew up in Connecticut and was a huge Red Sox fan as a kid. I’m a nerd who places great importance on education; Brad Ausmus is a nerd who delayed the start of his minor league career so he could get his degree from Dartmouth. I’m Jewish; Ausmus is Jewish.

Now he’s one of the players trying to get together an Israeli team for the next World Baseball Classic. I’m one of the few people who has a wholly unabashed love for the WBC!

IT’S LIKE HE WAS MADE BY THE BASEBALL GODS ESPECIALLY FOR MY ENJOYMENT.

There is no point to this story, except to say that Brad Ausmus is fantastic and we have never met but I bet we would be friends if we did. We could go get latkes and knishes at Zaftigs in Brookline and we could talk about philosophy and Johnny Pesky and old Tiger Stadium. It would be super magical. Gabe Kapler can join us, if he wants.

I don’t know why I drew him hiking up his pants. I sort of started at the top and then got down there and realized he had to be doing something with his hand and this is what happened.

Drawing and words by Blue Cats, Red Sox/Roar of the Tigers.

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