I ♥ Hunter Pence

This article was originally published on March 4, 2013

I love Hunter Pence.

Not because he puts up eye-popping numbers (he doesn’t), not because he guns baserunners from right field as well as anyone in the league (he does), and not because his warm up cuts in the on-deck circle aren’t endlessly amusing (they are). I love Hunter Pence because of how he approaches the game, and for the way he can’t help but play it.

Pence’s style of play has been described as “unorthodox” by those who are prone to using euphemisms and “ugly” by those prone to being assholes. The way Pence runs, throws, hits, warms up, and probably even the way he eats his kale is different.

But it works. It shouldn’t work, but it does. Someone who half-arms a baseball like he’s a shot putter that somehow wandered onto a baseball diamond shouldn’t have more outfield assists than all but three outfielders in baseball.

Someone who runs like a lumbering Looney Tunes character- hunched over, hands almost dragging on the ground- shouldn’t be one of just three players to have at least 20 home runs and 20 infield hits each season since 2008.

Pence is a phenomenal athlete whose body works in a way that can’t be taught, and can’t be imitated (except for laughs). He’s a one of a kind physical specimen who isn’t bound by the physical laws of mortal men.

Or, on second thought, maybe Pence is someone who isn’t a natural athlete. Maybe Pence has never been able to move the way typical athletes move, but through sheer determination and grit he’s been able to transcend that natural handicap and become an all-star baseball player.

Which one is it? I don’t know! Nothing about Pence makes sense!

I still can’t believe he wasn’t dismissed out of hand by scouts once they saw him playing catch or warming up in an on-deck circle. All logic, baseball wisdom, and what we know of biomechanics tells us that Pence has absolutely no business playing professional baseball… But he is playing professional baseball, and he’s somehow doing a pretty damn good job of it.

Beyond his performance on the field, what I admire most about Pence is this: he’s different; he knows that he’s different; he accepts that he’s different, and he’s at peace with it. Watch how he carries himself, how he expresses himself. There’s not an ounce of self-consciousness in his bones.

As much as I love watching Robinson Cano stroke home runs to right field at Yankee Stadium, or seeing Mike Trout jump over walls to rob home runs in Anaheim, nothing is more satisfying for me than watching Pence trot out onto the field each day, and play every inning with the ferocity that most ballplayers reserve for the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series.

Like many people, I love to marvel at the Lebron James’, the Lionel Messi’s, the Roger Federer’s, and the RG3’s of the world; but when I watch Pence play I can’t help but feel like maybe normal people can do amazing things too.

I think I have a little more Pence in me than I do Michael Jordan. I think we all do.