(Jupiter, FL) St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday smiled and nodded knowingly as he was told that in 1956, Stan Musial played in 156 games and hit .351 with 29 home runs while driving in 102 runs. Musial was 36 years old–just like Holliday this season.
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“I think for every guy that sucks when he’s old, there’s plenty of guys who’ve had great success when they’ve gotten past 35,” pointed out Holliday. “I don’t really worry about that. Every case is individualized. It’s always a good challenge to get out here and play at high level even though people think you’re getting old or you’re on the downside of your career. That’s part of it. You just use it to try and go out and perform.”
Obviously, not everybody is Stan the Man and Holliday has again taken steps this off-season physically to further improve his chance of success.
“I tried to get a little bit lighter as I felt like as I get a little bit older maybe it takes some load off some joints–try to get down under 240,” shared Holliday, who re-arranged his workouts to cut the weight and hopes to notice a difference on the field in a couple of weeks.
“I just feel good,” continued Holliday. “I haven’t run after any balls in the outfield or done any major baseball movement where I’ve needed to sprint other than just taking some ground balls at first base and doing some things like that and I feel really good. All that stuff is easier to tell how you feel once the Spring Training games start and you chase a ball into the gap and things like that.”
First base for Holliday had been mainly dismissed in the past, but with Jose Oquendo living nearby in Jupiter during the off-season there was a reconsideration.
“I thought you know what, if we ever need–like last year, we had a bunch of injuries and if there ever needs to be a time where they want me or ask me to go over there, I want to be prepared,” explained Holliday. “Having a whole couple of months to work with J.O. so if it does happen where they do need me–or say in a couple of years or maybe next year, if somebody wants me to play first base I want to have been able to have spent a whole off-season doing it before I try to commit to that. It was just a good opportunity.”
“We’ve been going real soft with this from our angle–letting Matt do what he wants to do right now and just kind of watch and see how it looks, not force anything at this point,” answered Mike Matheny on how much work Holliday may see at first this spring. “I think there’s a lot of benefits that come from Matt being versatile and getting some work.”
“The ultimate test is playing games,” acknowledged Matt on being ready to go. “But yeah, I feel comfortable with all of the footwork and sort of all the stuff that Jose has helped me with and understanding kind of the little things that you don’t think about–it’s not just catching the ball.”
As for the future–at first base, the outfield, or otherwise, Holliday is under contract for this year with a team option for 2017.
“I hope just to give them a no-brainer–that the option is no-brainer at the end of the year where it’s an easy pick-up,” stated Holliday. “Anytime you’re in the seventh year of your seven-year contract you start to–obviously, I’d love to finish my career here. It’s somewhere I want to be. Like I said, I hope to make the decision for them easy and be here again next year and maybe beyond that. It’s one of those things where it’s out of my control all I can control right now is my effort, my preparation, and being a good teammate.”
photo credits: Brian Stull/STLBaseballWeekly.com
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