TRENTON- While there are a lot of different personalities in the Thunder clubhouse, there is one thing that unites a group of pitchers and a catcher when they are off the diamond. European football, specifically the Premier League. While the sport is not as popular in the clubhouse as the NFL, it has been growing. Led by starting pitcher...
TRENTON- While there are a lot of different personalities in the Thunder clubhouse, there is one thing that unites a group of pitchers and a catcher when they are off the diamond.
European football, specifically the Premier League.
While the sport is not as popular in the clubhouse as the NFL, it has been growing. Led by starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery, relievers Alex Smith and Matt Tracy, and catcher Kyle Higashioka, Trenton is quickly becoming a futbal-rich team.
There is not always a great deal of time during the season, but the players try to sneak in as much as they can.
"There are a couple of guys in here that like soccer a lot," Tracy, who is a Tottenham Hotspur fan, said. "You don't necessarily find a lot of teams with soccer fans on it, but this is one of those teams."
"We like to watch a lot of English Premier League, and will be sure to turn into the Euros this summer," Tracy said.
"I went to a Bayern Munich and Manchester City Champions League game at Bayern a couple of years about, with John Ryan Murphy," Tracy said. "That was really cool."
Tracy has one ally in the locker room with Montgomery, who is also a Spurs fan, and a heated rivalry with Smith, who is a fan of the other team in North London, Arsenal.
"I am a Hotspur, COYS (Come on you Spurs)," Montgomery said. "I went over to England my freshman summer, and was supposed to go on a tour of Chelsea's stadium. But there was a power outage, so they cancelled it."
"I think it is growing," Montgomery said. "It is already huge across the water. It is just such an athletic sport. I have respect for athletes of different sports, because of the different qualities thy have to have. They have crazy footwork when they are playing."
"We usually watch it before games on the weekends," Smith said. "If we have time. I started watching it a lot this offseason. I just absolutely love it."
"We are all going to a Red Bulls Sounders game on June 19th I think," Smith said. "We have an early game. That is going to be great."
"I think the sport is starting to grow here a lot more than everyone expected it to, Smith said. "It has been tough to compete with the NFL, NBA NHL. There is a lot of money in those sports. But the sport is growing, and it is exciting."
Higashioka is a big Liverpool fan, and the team gathered around the television to watch the Europa League Final last Wednesday. Higashioka's squad dropped the match 3-1 to Sevilla.
With the upcoming Copa America Centenario, which will see the final played at Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, and the Euro 2016 tournament in France, the Thunder players will have a chance to watch a lot more of the game in the next 45 days.
"I think sport is growing a lot," Tracy said. "Usually in baseball clubhouses, soccer is a sport that gets made fun of, but that is not the case anymore. A lot of people are tuning in now, with the deal NBC has with the Premier League. It is a lot more accessible, and it is on more, so people are exposed to it more."
"I will definitely be tuning in to the England side (for the Euros)," Tracy said. "Because there will be a lot of Tottenham players in the side. Hopefully they can come back next year and play well."
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The Thunder hosted the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Monday night, in the first of a four-game series.
Trenton got an RBI groundout from local product Billy Fleming in the bottom of the sixth, to take a 7-6 win over the Fisher Cats (20-22).
Tracy came into the game in the fifth inning, and threw three innings of relief of Cale Coshow to pick up the victory. He moved to 3-1 on the season for the Thunder (23-19).
Smith followed Tracy onto the mound, and pitched two innings of perfect baseball, to notch his second save of the year. Smith was especially effective, striking out four batters of the six he faced, to lower his ERA on the year to 2.60.
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Fleming (1-for-3, RBI) made his return from Tampa, where he hit .329 this season with 27 RBI. He hit .250 over 14 games last season in Trenton.
Contact Sean Miller at seanmillertrentontimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheProdigalSean