Playing in the 12th season of his big-league career, Matt Holliday has already been an All-Star six times. But 2015 marks the first season the fans have chosen the St. Louis Cardinals outfielder to start in the Mid-Summer Classic.
“It’s very humbling and honoring that the fans would vote me in,” said Holliday. “I never take those kinds of things for granted.”
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Holliday didn’t closely follow National League vote updates, but shared his two sons kept him fully apprised.
“Yeah, I think they have a few email addresses now,” joked Holliday when it was mentioned the boys could’ve accounted for at least 70 votes on a daily basis. “I don’t think anybody was more excited than them.”
There are still a couple of hurdles to clear running, but Holliday will be working on change of direction and other parts of the rehab tomorrow. With the double-header on Tuesday, Matt may have a break and then resume running on Thursday but he appears on track to not just play in the All-Star Game but in the series against Pittsburgh before it.
“Probably not til Pittsburgh, yeah,” said Holliday. “This is part of the plan. You can’t go from 50% to 100% without all the steps in between. This is how you rehab from an injury, you can’t just say ‘I don’t feel much right now, I’m just gonna take off running.’ There’s things and percentages and change in directions stuff that you have to be able to do at 100%. You don’t roll out there at 80% and something surprises you and you have to change direction and you re-hurt it. It’s one of those things, you’ve got to make sure all the bases are covered before you go try to play.”
In the 52 games this season before his quad strain, Holliday was batting .303 (54-178) with 3 HRs and 26 RBIs. He also set a franchise record by reaching base safely in the first 45 games of the season.
photo credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
