Friday, September 12, 2008

September 12 Is Apparently Andre Ethier Day

Andre Ethier's recent assault on offensive statistics and worldwide media continues, as he even pops up in today's Wall Street Journal on a nice feature piece, "The Dugout Gourmet":

Three years into his major-league career, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier is having a breakout season. On Monday the 26-year-old was named National League Player of the Week after posting a .650 batting average with two home runs and eight RBI for the first-place Dodgers.

He's also become something of a misfit in a line of work where days are long, time is precious and drive-thrus, chain restaurants and bland clubhouse buffets rule the day. He's a serious foodie.

Mr. Ethier knows where to find the best throat-meat tacos in Los Angeles, the juiciest Salvadoran papusas and the city's tastiest Romanian chicken stew. He waxes poetic about the pinto beans in his native Arizona, where they're often pureed with cream and lard. "Here they want you to taste the bean, not the lard, which is... different."

In June, Mr. Ethier began snapping pictures of the dishes at some of his favorite restaurants and posting them on a blog he calls "Dining With 'Dre."

The link also has an embedded video that allows one to listen to WSJ reporter Hannah Karp's melodic voice (a picture of the reporter would have been nice...that voice is nectar).

And, Ethier describes the behind-the-scenes magic of his blog:

Mr. Ethier says he modeled his blog on his favorite foodie journal, "Feasting in Phoenix." Each entry is structured chronologically as if the experience occurred in a single night, though it's usually an amalgam of several visits. "I take a little creative liberty," he says.

After taking pictures of each dish and composing the text on his iPhone over several weeks, he sends the finished piece to the Dodgers' vice president of communications Josh Rawitch, who does nothing more than clean up typos and check his grammar and punctuation. Maggie Ethier says she was surprised to learn that her husband -- who earned a C in creative writing in college -- had such a clever way with words.

Josh Rawitch has time to edit Andre Ethier's blog? Does that man ever sleep?

4 comments:

Orel said...

Today we are Sons of Andre Ethier!

Orel said...

I would like to be interviewed by Hannah Karp.

Steve Sax said...

Hmm, she's apparently a Dookie. Perhaps Northwestern Journalism School redeemed her?

QuadSevens said...

Great voice on Hannah Karp. We really need a nice picture of her. A quick google search early proved to be fruitless.