The Nice List, Angels style. Who made the cut?

#4 – Matt Shoemaker 

Matt Shoemaker is another fan-favorite and for good reason.  He is a genuinely nice guy.  I have had the pleasure of interviewing him four different times and he has been great to talk to every time.  You will never hear him say a bad thing about his teammates or anyone for that matter. Shoemaker is also not afraid to talk about his faith in God which he did multiple times with me.

In addition he also has a great sense of humor and he is very humble as well. Shoemaker is a guy that I could talk to forever about anything not just baseball.  He is just simply one of those good guys. Beside openly talking about his faith my favorite Shoemaker moment was in one interview I was asking him about a line drive that hit him in the rear end it looked like.  I asked him about it as most of the reporters there thought it him in the leg or in the back or something.

Shoemaker’s response was ‘It hit me in the butt, which was a good place because I have a lot of padding there’. Later I asked him about a play where he was trying to field a throw from then Angel prospect Matt Thaiss at first base and they could not connect on the play. Shoemaker’s response ‘He threw me a knuckleball that was hard to get to,’ but then he recanted ‘I’m just kidding, he made a great play and throw and I should have caught it. That’s on me.’

As always taking the blame for another player not blaming anyone for his mistake. I was sad to see Jered Weaver go as well as David Eckstein, and now Kole Calhoun, but the player I truly miss the most out of these guys is Matt Shoemaker.  I wrote an article saying as much early this season wishing him the best in Toronto and hoping his injury wasn’t serious (unfortunately it was. Torn ACL). Shoemaker sent me a personal message on Twitter personally thanking me for writing the article and that it meant a lot to him.  That’s just the kind of guy Shoemaker is.