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Evan Longoria Will Wear the Same Pair of Pants for Next 162 Games (No Wonder He Says He Doesn’t Have a Girlfriend)
In case you missed it amongst the Butler, McNabb, and Tiger hype, baseball is back and is primed to take center stage as Spring yields to summer each team plays through 162 games.The Tampa Bay Rays may be the most talented of those teams. And at the heart of the Rays lineup and core of their team is third baseman Evan Longoria. Longoria is 24 years-old and beginning just his third season in the major leagues. But, after averaging 30 HRs and 99 RBIs in his first two seasons, expectations for Longoria are as high as anyone – especially in the American League – this year. And in a unique situation for such a young player, he is already being rewarded for his efforts.
Longoria signed a nine-year (up to) $44 million deal when he first joined the big league teamUnfortunately, for Longoria and the Rays, talent may not be enough and that contract may inhibit the team from winning it all or contending for years to come. Tampa Bay lacks the fiscal flexibility of division rivals Boston and the New York Yankees. If the Rays are not in serious playoff contention (and making money) midway through the season, players like Carl Crawford and others could be lost, while teams like the Red Sox and Yankees add pieces for the stretch run. It’s not like Longoria doesn’t deserve his money, but that’s the way economics work in baseball.Evan Longoria joined the Dan Patrick Show to discuss the AL MVP, watching baseball, superstitions, and facing Roy Halladay.
On if he is superstitious:
“Yeah. I guess so. I don’t like to think of it as a superstition. I like to think of it as a habit. I even tell the clubhouse guys to not switch out my pants when I get a hole in the them. I just have them stitch them up or patch them up or whatever. I wear the same pair of pants for every game every year – the same undershirt, the same socks unless they get a hole in them. So yeah.”
On Dan Patrick choosing him as AL MVP:
“You know it’s a really a funny thing for me to grasp. I can’t even imagine to be in the same category as the guys who have won it before me, so I am just going to go out there and try to play the game the way I have been playing it and see what happens. It’s not really in my blood to be outspoken and loud.”
On who he would pick in the AL MVP race:
“Probably Alex Rodriguez. You want me to go off the board for you? How about Mike Young? He’s a really good player. I like Mike.”
On his mood going into a game against Roy Halladay:
“I already know the night before, so it’s a rough sleep going into it. We had some good success in both of my years. I think we beat him six times or seven times. But it always feels that we grind so hard the day that we have to face him that, for the next three or four days, we take a hiatus and end up slumping because you have to get some prepared to face a guy like him.”
And on why he didn’t watch the Red Sox-Yankees opener:
“Because I’m not interested. We play them enough times to know… I don’t watch baseball when I am not playing baseball. I think that is true of a lot of major league players or baseball players in general. I don’t watch TV to be honest with you. And when I do, I stay between three channels: the Travel Channel, Discovery or National Geographic. On Travel, there is Man vs. Food and I think the other show that I watch is on Travel too. Actually, there is two: Food Wars and Bizarre Foods.”
Listen to Evan Longoria on the Dan Patrick Show.
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