Dodgers: Andre Ethier Explains What He Misses From His Playing Days
Playing in the Major Leagues is a dream that very few can make a reality. Reaching the Majors is one thing, but carving a successful career is yet another. Former outfielder Andre Ethier was able to accomplish both with the Los Angeles Dodgers during his MLB career after debuting back in 2006.
Since officially retiring from the game in 2018, Ethier has been able to remain around baseball in a limited capacity. Still watching from the stands doesn’t quite feel the same as from the dugout. Although it hasn’t been in retirement that long, Ethier revealed what he’s missed about his playing days.
“I miss so much about playing the game. Luckily for me, I get to do a lot of the stuff, fun stuff, that was involved in the game now that I’m done but at the same time, the monotonous stuff that annoys you while you’re playing you miss it. Showing up at 1:30 [pm], getting your uniform on, going to the training room, going to the gym, going to the batting cage, going back and getting your uniform on for batting practice, all that routine all those monotonous days I miss 100%.”
After having that same routine day in and day out for 12 seasons with the Dodgers, it’s hard not to feel like you’re missing something in your life the way Ethier does. Ethier explained that he missed all the little things about playing in the big leagues, but one aspect seemed to be missed the most.
“And then the most [missed], standing in that batter’s box at Dodger Stadium having 56,000 fans around you and getting to have that at-bat. There’s nothing like standing in the middle of that stadium and having that at-bat in front of those fans.”
That has to be such a great feeling to walk out of that dugout and into the batter’s box with tens of thousands of fans cheering for you, especially in big moments. Lucky for Ethier, he had plenty of those moments.
Charitable Efforts
The former Dodger has been hard at work this offseason working with a group called “No Us Without You LA”, a non-profit dedicated to providing food security for undocumented families during the pandemic.
Andre’s efforts were wonderfully covered by Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times and can be read about here.
NEXT: Is Kyle Schwarber a Good Consolation Prize if LA Misses Out on Freddie Freeman?
CMON FO, put this guy to work. He would be a excellent replacement to the Barney Fife you have there now…
I think being a Barney Fife is a mandatory pre-requisite. I’m sure Ethier has matured but I talked to some sports writers during his playing days and the consensus was that he didn’t handle criticism all that well. I think Roberts deflects well and since I don’t think he makes 100% of the decisions, but takes 100% of the heat, he’s not going anywhere.
Drrrrrrr only deflects game changing decisions…Ethier would be a breath of fresh air, and it’s your opinion but Friedman made it clear last year in a press conference that the Pitching, roster and line ups were ALL made by Drrrrrr. There have been many people that believe Friedman micro manages from upstairs, but he said what he said and that’s all we have. So with that said, this means the Dodgers either keep being rolled in the post season because of their manager, or they move on to someone who has experience in tight situations. Ethier does, he was a Starter and one of the best Dodgers of our lifetime. Drrrrrrr stole a base…….I’d take Ethier in a heartbeat, and I’ll have faith that the FO is sincere in their decisions going forward about exactly WHO is responsible for 280 million dollar rosters..
We need a manager (Ethier) to tell the media to butt out sometimes and he would be 100% in control of the team during games or he would not take the job
That would be a nice Pre —- requisite on the contract for sure. But I don’t know if Ethier fits the Affirmative action criteria in the current Social format Don. Let’s hope the Dodgers wake up to their current Fife situation ruins players staying.
Dre was a great player to watch in the box and in the field. Congrats to him on a great career in the bigs. Can you imagine going up to hit in front of 56,000?