Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Philip Humber hates dolphins

The New York Times had a nice write-up on Astros rotation candidate Philip Humber. Included was this fun little anecdote:


One day, his father gave him cash to buy a souvenir. Humber, who was about 6, decided to purchase the most expensive item he could afford.“It ended up being a little trinket ring, like a championship ring with the Astros’ logo,” Humber said the other day by his locker in the Astros’ clubhouse.“The next part of our vacation, we went to Sea World in San Antonio,” he said. “I had the ring on, and we go into this dolphin exhibit where you can actually get the dolphins to come up to you and touch them.“The ring falls off. It’s loud in this place, and I’m yelling to my dad, ‘I can’t reach it!’ And here comes this dolphin and swallows that ring. Oh, it was devastating, man. I hated dolphins for a long time after that.”

They also discuss his up and down career so far with a little perspective thrown in from Jeff Luhnow and pitching coach Dennis Martinez.