In modern baseball, where more and more opportunities are given to young people, active players over 40 years old seem to be an endangered species, but also There are others, like former Major League player Erik Pappas, who are still playing at 57 years old.
In recent years it has been very common to see MLB players or former players join European baseball teams, such as Roger Bernadina and Didi Gregorius with the Netherlands, Ty Kelly and Ryan Lavarnway with Israel, and more recently Eric Sogard with the Czech Republic. , but Pappas’s is a special case because in his longevity, he is part of the Gracia team.
Serving as the second catcher and substitute for the first baseman, the greatest virtue of the former Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals player is his experience that, despite only being in the Majors for three seasons, looks pretty wide against players from Europe where baseball is not as popular a sport.
Erik Pappas, played with the St. Louis Cardinals between 1993 and 1994. Credit: Getty Images
But this is not the first time that Pappas represents the Greek team, and it is that He joined them when he found out that Greece was going to host the Olympic Games in 2004. Precisely the youngest player of this European team, he was born in the year of celebration of that Olympic tournament.
It was that sporting event that motivated the recipient to come out of retirement since, at that event, he was almost 40 years old.
“I wasn’t playing baseball at all. I had no interest in playing in those over-30 leagues. About five years ago, I heard about the Olympics and the possibility of Greece having a team, and I thought, ‘Great. I’ll be 38 years old.’ I didn’t think the team would interest me.”Erik Pappas expressed to Baseball America on that occasion.
The Chicago-born player did not play in Greece’s 14-1 defeat against Spain, however, He is expected to take at least one pinch-hit turn in some of the next two games. against the Czech Republic on Monday or against Austria on Tuesday.
With information from MLB.com.
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2023-09-26 04:33:21
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