Saturday, December 7, 2013

Day 251: Best Beard in Baseball is Returning to Boston

“The beard is coming back to Boston!!! Couldn’t be happier!!” Mike Napoli posted on Twitter at 9:09pm on Friday. That's good news for Red Sox fans. They guy who grew the best beard in baseball is coming back to Beantown. Let the beard tugging continue!

Mike Napoli signed a two-year, $32 million deal with the Red Sox—which is a bit of a raise over last year and even the original contract he signed in the offseason last year before concerns over his hip caused the Sox to renegotiate to a one-year deal. He also earned bonuses for the number of games he played in over the 2013 season.

The 32-year-old made it clear he wanted to stay in Boston, and rumor has it he left a three-year, nearly $42 million deal on the table from the Texas Rangers, a team he had played with before. That right there speaks for his love for playing with the Red Sox and this great group of guys.

Napoli provided important protection for David Ortiz in the middle of the order and in 139 games he batted .259 with an .842 OPS, 23 home runs and 92 RBIs. The .259 batting average is right in line with his career average so I'm happy with that. Although he set a team record with 187 strikeouts, he also led the majors by seeing 4.59 pitches per plate appearance—definitely a skill the Red Sox placed much value on and they were pretty good at too.

The catcher turned first baseman showed good range in the field despite his hip problems which were controlled with medication. And he also displayed an amazing ability to grasp facial hair of any length in a celebratory beard tug.

I think the only problem with Mike Napoli is his inability to keep his shirt on during celebrations.

2 comments:

  1. Stacy, love the blog and good job on keeping up with your sports post a day. Great articles. Would you be at all interested in contributing sports stories on your blog to our site at kcsportsninja.com? We are getting about 100,000 hits per month so we'd be a good way to gain a little more exposure. If you are interested please drop me an email at kcsportsninja@gmail.com

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    1. Hey! Thanks for reading... I would love to contribute! I'll email you soon.

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