Nick Markakis kept saying he’d rather have a four-day break with his family than be named an All-Star.
Actually receiving his first All-Star selection changed all that. Suddenly he realized he’ll relish the time with his wife and three sons at a setting where he’ll be recognized as one of the game’s biggest stars.
”Yeah [url=[http://www.cowboyscheapshop.com/cheap-au...rederick-jersey]Travis Frederick Jersey[/url] , it’s one of those feelings that you’ve never felt before,” Markakis said. ”It’s definitely special, especially with my kids being old enough to be able to share it and remember it.”
Markakis, 34, collected 2,165 hits and two Gold Gloves in 13 seasons, including nine with Baltimore, before finally breaking through for his first All-Star selection in his fourth season with Atlanta.
His breakthrough left no room for doubt. After so many years of being an also-ran in the voting, Markakis led all National League outfielders with 3,556,469 votes.
”It’s going to be exciting,” Markakis said. ”It’s going to be a fun couple of days up there. I’m excited to share it with my kids and share it with my teammates who are coming along with me.”
Juan Pierre, who had 2,217 hits for six teams in his 14-year career that ended in 2013, is the only player with more hits than Markakis who was never named an All-Star.
Those who have been around Markakis the longest had the loudest cheers for the selection many said was long overdue.
”One of the happiest moments of my big league career was giving him that All-Star envelope,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.
Former Braves third baseman Chipper Jones used his Twitter account to say the All-Star honor was long overdue.
Orioles manager Buck Showalter enjoyed seeing his former right fielder finally thrust into the spotlight.
”I can’t imagine anyone having a more All-Star worthy season than Nick Markakis,” Showalter said when the Orioles visited Atlanta in late June. ”There is such a self-pride there. Contracts don’t drive him. The only thing that drives him is winning.”
Showalter has a special appreciation for the role Markakis holds with a rebuilding Braves team that also features such young players as All-Star second baseman Ozzie Albies, 21, and left fielder Ronald Acuna Jr., 20.
”To try to put a young team together Michael Palardy Jersey , to have a guy like Nick around is paramount,” Showalter said.
Markakis said he tries to provide a guide for younger players by sticking to a strict routine each day.
”I’ve got myself in a routine I do daily,” he said. ”I try to stay within that and not stray too far from it. Even when I was young I watched the older guys and how they prepared themselves with what they did. It rubbed off on me and now here I am today doing it and hopefully I can help my teammates and the younger guys.”
Even at 34, Markakis said he also can learn from the young rookies.
”I’m learning from them and hopefully they can learn from me, too,” he said. ”Just go about your business and do what you can to help a ballclub win every day.”
Markakis has helped the Braves lead the NL East for much of the season. He entered Friday night’s game against Arizona leading the NL with 116 hits and 38 multi-hit games and tied for the lead with 29 doubles. His .322 batting average ranked second in the league.
Markakis is having his best season, but he has been good for many years. He has a .289 career batting average, though his modest power numbers made it difficult for him to fare well in comparisons with the game’s top sluggers. Markakis has hit 20 or more homers in only two seasons, the last time in 2008 when he hit 20 with Baltimore. He has 10 homers with 60 RBIs.
In an era where all-or-nothing swings earn TV highlights and big contracts, there is still an appreciation for the skills Markakis brings as a disciplined hitter.
”I love the guy,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said. ”I saw him many years in Baltimore. I don’t think he probably gets the recognition he deserves. …. He’s still one of the top pure hitters in the game.”
—
The ball was flying down the field often for Minnesota during that drizzly night in Green Bay, and Randy Moss kept going over and past the defense to get it.
Five games into his NFL career, Moss was a star. He was a revolutionary, too. There was no moment that better defined his arrival as the league's premier deep threat than that breakout prime-time performance against the two-time reigning NFC champion and bitter rival Packers.
"Seeing Randall Cunningham smile, seeing him energetic," Moss said, reflecting on his five-catch, 190-yard, two-touchdown connection with Cunningham that carried the Vikings to a 37-24 victory. "It was just a great feeling."
When the Vikings landed in Minnesota, his half-brother Christian Jones Jersey , Eric Moss, who was briefly his teammate, wondered about the celebrating the big win.
"I said, 'Going out? No, I want to go home,'" Moss said.
Then defensive tackle John Randle tapped him on the shoulder.
"Man, we're going to party tonight!" Moss said, recalling Randle's pronouncement to the rookie. "That's when I finally understood what it really meant to the guys for us to go into Lambeau and win."
Twenty years later, with Moss set to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend after being elected in his first year of eligibility, the swift, sleek and sometimes-sassy wide receiver has finally understood the depth of his impact on the game and the privilege of opportunity to serve as a celebrant of the sport.
"I came into the league with, I guess, my head not really screwed on my shoulders properly," Moss said recently on a conference call with reporters.
Over time, the "homebody-type guy" from tiny Rand, West Virginia, who ranks second in NFL history in touchdown receptions (156) and fourth in receiving yards (15,292), learned how to soften some of the edges he's carried since he was a kid.
"I've been able to open myself up and meet more people, be able to travel the world Stephen Curry Jersey ," said Moss, who's in his third season as an ESPN analyst. "Football here in America is a very powerful sport, and just being in that gold jacket, hopefully I can just be able to continue to reach people and continue to do great things."
Moss will become the 14th inductee from the Vikings, joining former teammates Cris Carter, Chris Doleman, Randall McDaniel and Randle. He'll be the 27th wide receiver enshrined at the museum in Canton, Ohio. That's a three-hour drive from his hometown, but it's sure a long way from poverty-ridden Rand where Moss and his sports-loving friends played football as frequently as they could in the heart of coal country next to the Allegheny Mountains just south of the capital city, Charleston.
"It was something that just felt good. I loved to compete. I just loved going out there just doing what kids do, just getting dirty," Moss said.
He landed at Marshall University after some off-the-field trouble kept him out of Florida State and Notre Dame, and he took the Thundering Herd to what was then the NCAA Division I-AA national championship in 1996. Several NFL teams remained wary of his past, but Vikings head coach Dennis Green didn't flinch when Moss was still on the board in the 1998 draft with the 21st overall pick. Moss never forgot the teams that passed on him, with especially punishing performances against Dallas, Detroit and Green Bay.
"I just carried a certain chip on my shoulder because the way I grew up playing was just basically having a tough mentality," Moss said. "Crying, hurting, in pain? So what? Get up, and let's go."
The Vikings finished 15-1 in 1998 Chad Thomas Jersey , infamously missing the Super Bowl by a field goal. The next draft, the Packers took cornerbacks with their first three picks.
Moss never escaped his reputation as a moody player whose behavior and effort were often questioned. That led to his first departure from Minnesota, via trade to Oakland in 2005.
The Raiders dealt him to New England in 2007, when the Patriots became the first 16-0 team before losing in the Super Bowl, to the New York Giants.
After a rocky 2010 for Moss, including being traded by the Patriots and released by the Vikings, he took a year off. He returned in 2012 to reach one more Super Bowl with the San Francisco 49ers.
Moss was not a particularly physical player, but for his lanky frame he had plenty of strength. His combination of height and speed was exceptional, and his instincts for the game were too.
Carter taught him how to watch the video board at the Metrodome to find the ball in the air, and he had a knack for keeping his hands close enough to his body that if the defensive back in coverage had his back to the quarterback he couldn't tell when the ball was about to arrive.
In an NFL Films clip that captured a sideline conversation between him and Cunningham during one game, Moss yelled, "Throw it up above his head! They can't jump with me! Golly!"
For Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen, who has lived his entire life in Minnesota, was a sports-loving 8-year-old in 1998 when Moss helped lead the Vikings to what was then the NFL season scoring record with 556 points. The first team to break it was New England in 2007 with, again, Moss as the premier pass-catcher who set the all-time record that year with 23 touchdown catches.
"It's fun to look back at his career and watch his old film. I love when that stuff pops up on Instagram, to be able to watch some of those old Randy plays that made me want to play this game," Thielen said. "I try to emulate him as much as I can."
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