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Angels Players Offseason Habits

By Mike Greyshock

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Many of us are have been enjoying some time off these past two weeks. Ball players are not only paid much better than us but they receive months off of their day job. We can only imagine what we’d do if we were paid gobs of money and then given months off work. That got me to thinking about what our own Angels players have been doing these past few months since they were given time off beginning in much too early October.

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Since I don’t actually know any of our players (if you’re reading this Mr. Trout feel to contact me anytime, I like the smell of freshly cut grass, long walks on the beach and outdoor adventures) I looked through their social media sites to see what they’ve been posting.

As you’d expect, the most commonly posted activities are family related. After all, one of the biggest downsides to being a ball player is so much time on the road. Here’s a smiling Huston Street (something opposing batters never get to see) with his wife, while the kids are off being boys.

The Hamilton‘s did the traditional family get together. However, this looks much too civil to be a true traditional family.


The last time most of us have seen months of free time was in our youth during summer break. Those were times for mischief and carefree shenanigans of boys being boys and girls being girls. Idle hands in our younger selves came up with all sorts of immature, sometimes dangerous and always hilarious dares and challenges for our friends.

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Matt Shoemaker’s offseason began a bit later than most of the other Angels as he was off representing the MLB in Japan. He did a mighty fine job of it and no doubt inspired (or terrified) a whole generation of young Japanese fans with the majesties of what a beard can do for ones persona.

During his time across the western pond he and Tommy Hunter reverted back to there boyhoods (if they ever grew up) by challenging each other to some dares. The foods of Japan are renowned for their uniqueness and some more so than others. Potatoes are not well known as a Japanese food, but squid are. Potato chips are out and squid chips are in.

Hunter dared Shoemaker to eat this fine snack and of course the beloved beard has no fear of squid. Thankfully this moment was recorded for all the world to enjoy.

Not to be outdone was fellow Angels pitcher, Hector Santiago. Some managers succeed with the gruff, rough and serious persona. Others command respect but remain approachable. Teddy bear of a manager Terry Francona appears to invite good cheer and kindness.  So, when dared to give ‘ol softy’ Francona a kiss on his smooth head, of course Santiago complied. Personally I would have been much more impressed if this was Lou Pinella, or god forbidAdrian Beltre. 

We all like to take time and enjoy our hobbies during our off-time. When going through the posts from our Angels I expected there to be plenty of proudly displayed,  freshly crocheted beanies, Bob Ross paintings, scrapbooking and the like. It appears though that the favorite pastime is hunting. We can find hunting tweets and interests at the profiles of (duck hunter)  Cam Bedrosian, Huston Street and Garrett Richards (who hunts with Trout). Others are on the hunt for a different sort of bird.

Baseball players have two things in abundance that few of us ever have much of, time and money. If given both of these things we’d likely find life wasn’t as fulfilling as we thought if all we did was fill our time with vacations and hobbies. We can be proud of Angels players for spending so much of their valuable resources in charity work. All of our players are busy doing good for other but two which have causes close to them are Joe Smith and Albert Pujols. Pujols’ has a daughter with down syndrome. He devotes so much to this cause his social pages are heavily loaded with posts of his great efforts.


Set-up man Joe Smith is closely hit by his mothers struggle with Huntington’s Disease. He helped set-up the website helpcurehd.com to fight the terrible disease. Joe has been strong on the campaign to raise awareness and efforts to battle HD.

Many of our Angels have begun getting ready for the season and in just a couple short months spring training will be here. Hobbies will have to be put on hold but the time devoted to good causes will go on. The kind acts and generous deeds will often times go unseen. Us fans likely have a lot in common with our favorite player, and hopefully we all have some of their same giving attitude.

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