[情報] Rex Hudler 側寫
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標題 Rex Hudler: Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Angels
出版 bleacher report
作者 Johnathan Kroncke (Contributor)
With child-like enthusiasm, he greets his listeners.
“Halo, Angels fans!”
His infectious excitement bubbling over, color commentator Rex Hudler
weaves together a pleasant salutation with the nickname for his
beloved Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
But he is not one to fancy himself a clever linguist.
In fact, his penchant for self-deprecation, along with an endless
supply of cringe-worthy lines like “from his nose to his toes, that's
how Vlad goes,” only serve to make Hudler the most lovable sports
figure in Southern California.
Rex “The Wonder Dog” Hudler began his professional baseball career
in 1978 as a highly touted, and well-paid, 18-year-old second baseman
signed right out of high school by the New York Yankees.
It's probably best he went into the game so young because, as Hudler
likes to say, he'd never have made it in college.
Unfortunately, he didn't make it with the Yankees either. Hudler spent
21 years in professional baseball bouncing back and forth between the
Majors and Minors, and had stints with 18 different clubs, including
the Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, and California Angels.
In 1993, Hudler even found time to win a Japan Series Championship
with the Yakult Swallows.
But despite never sticking with one organization for more than three
years, when his career ended in the summer of '98 with Philadelphia,
Hudler returned to the Angels as the enthusiastic new member of the
broadcast team.
Now in his 11th season behind the mic, the Wonder Dog hasn't calmed
down a bit. And the fans love him for it.
Whether it's his hilarious stories about “riding the pine for nine”
in the big leagues (Hudler's term for being a bench-warmer during his
career), or his overflowing excitement for the game right in front of
him, Hudler connects with his fans.
We feel like he is one of us, and he clearly feels the same way. In
between innings, and occasionally during, you can usually find him
waving to fans and signing autographs for kids.
During an Angels home game earlier this season, Hudler joined a
little girl in the stands who had brought a sign asking him to sit
with her. There was no sense of ego or entitlement involved, it's just
who he is.
He is also a butcher of the English language, which would seem to be a
detriment for a broadcaster. Yet somehow, it only makes him all the
more endearing.
Around my house, our favorite in-season game to play is “What did Rex
say this time?” During a pre-game radio interview last year, Hudler
was hyping the Angels' chances of winning a World Series by dismissing
certain baseball experts, saying “they can go ahead and make all
their...prognacations.”
I believe I won that round.
He's a little like Yogi Berra in that you know what he's trying to
say, it just doesn't always come out so smooth. And when he gets on a
topic like the Angels in the postseason, watch out.
Hudler's liable to kill someone with how fast he talks when he's
excited.
But it isn't so much that he is a blatant homer as he is a passionate
fan of the game.
Guys like Ken “The Hawk” Harrelson and Steve Stone, the voices of
the Chicago White Sox television crew, are an embarrassment with their
rehearsed home run calls and cheer-leading from the booth. They
actually make the game uncomfortable to watch.
Hudler, on the other hand, is like a little boy at his very first
game. He jumps out of his chair when he sees a deep fly ball, his
headphones ripping right off his head, and often steps on the play-by-
-play man's calls because he just can't contain himself.
He, essentially, is us. Hudler is a fan, an under-medicated ADD kid
who actually has to grip a baseball throughout the broadcast to keep
himself focused.
Always the first to mock his career, his broadcast style, and his hair
transplants, Hudler is simultaneously the Angels' weakest talent and
greatest asset in terms of bringing the game to the fans.
Just as the Cubs did with Harry Caray and the Tigers with Ernie
Harwell, when his run in the booth is over, Huddler will undoubtedly
be immortalized with a statue at The Big A, a mic in one hand, a
baseball in the other, and a boyish grin across his face.
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