[外電] Kate Upton如何拯救Verlander的事業(上)

看板MLB作者pneumo (超☆冒險蓋)時間7年前 (2018/08/21 15:39)推噓12(12推 0噓 2→)

留言14則, 13人參與討論串1/1

這篇有夠長，所以我把它拆成三篇。來源: The Bleacher Report 網址: https://tinyurl.com/y9gj2byh HOW KATE UPTON SAVED JUSTIN VERLANDER'S CAREER Kate Upton如何拯救Verlander的事業(上) He arrives at the ballpark driving a gray muscle car. A replica, modeled after a famous car from a movie. There’s some 700 horsepower under the hood, and it is one fun, badass ride. Her name is Eleanor. He just got her this past spring. One more for the collection. He’s up to about a dozen, including five Ferraris—two of which are fully customized, he says. He hand-selected every part of the cars from the inside out. 他開著一台灰色肌肉車到達球場，這是一台複製品，跟一部有名電影裡的車子一樣，有著 700匹馬力，一台充滿樂趣也是有點壞壞的車子。這車有個名字，叫Eleanor，他這個春天才入手這台，在他已經眾多的收集中再加上這一台。他已經有十幾台車，他有五台法拉利，根據他的說法，有兩台還是客製車，由裡到外，他親手挑選每個零件。 He loves cars because his father loved cars. Growing up in Goochland County, Virginia, he saw his father bring one old sports car after another through the family garage and fix them up, have some fun with them, then sell them to make extra money. As the boy grew up, his love grew with him. He became obsessed with racing video games like Gran Turismo, playing for hours at a time. He dreamed of one day building a collection of his own. It would feature the coolest, fastest cars the world had to offer—some of them modified to his specifications. 他喜歡車子的原因是因為他爸。在Virginia的Goochland郡長大，他看著他爸爸拿著一些舊的跑車零件在車庫裡修理，修好後享受了一陣子，就把車子賣掉賺些外快。而當這個小男孩長大了，這樣的喜愛也跟隨著他。他對賽車電玩，像是Gran Turismo，非常的沉迷，一次可以玩好幾個小時。他夢想著有一天可以完成他自己的收集，裡面會有這世上最酷最快的車子--有些車子更要按照他所想要的條件而做。 “Now,” Justin Verlander says, “I do that in real life.” 「現在，」Justin Verlander說，「我真的做到了。」 He parks Eleanor in the garage then makes for the clubhouse, wearing black loafers, light blue jeans, a white T-shirt and black trucker hat on backward. At his locker, he changes into shorts and a tight, sleeveless shirt, then settles into a leather chair so he can talk about what it means to build. Something happens between a man and a car when he has put it together himself. “I feel like you’re more connected to the car that way,” he says. 他把Eleanor停在球團車庫，穿著黑色平底鞋，淺藍色牛仔褲，白色T恤，反戴著一頂黑色卡車司機帽。在置物櫃前，他換穿短褲跟一件緊身無袖上衣後，坐進一張皮椅，然後開始說著打造車子的理由。他覺得，當一個男人在造車的過程中，車跟人之間會有火花。「我覺得這樣更有人車一體的FU，」他說。 Verlander probably didn’t mean all the car talk as metaphor, but the way his life’s gone the last few years, the metaphors just write themselves. Since entering the league as rookie in 2006, he was known for having an “explosive arm with electric stuff,” says former slugger-turned-analyst Alex Rodriguez. In 2011, Verlander won a Cy Young Award and became the first starting pitcher since 1986 to be named league MVP. He could throw 100 miles per hour well into the late innings and made it look easy, even after 100 pitches. “I was built to do it,” he says. “A lot of people that do throw that hard maybe aren’t meant to. No wonder they break.” Verlander這番跟車子有關的談話或許不全然都是在打比方人生，但是以他過去這幾年的人生歷練，這是不用比方就可以看得出來的。2006年進入MLB，他就以A-Rod稱呼Verlander有著"爆裂手臂"聞名。2011年拿下賽揚，也成為自1986年以來第一位以先發投手身分拿下聯盟MVP。輕輕鬆鬆就可以飆出100mile的火球，即使是球賽末端，已經投了100+球數的狀況下。「我的身體就是為投球特製的，」他說。「有些人可以那樣用力投，但是他們的身體並不是可以負擔的，所以他們後來就壞掉了。」 He calls it “a gift.” He has a natural knowledge of how to throw things with unnatural force. That’s still true. Even at 35, his arm remains explosive, his stuff electric. “I’m just glad I don’t have to face him anymore,” Rodriguez says. “Best part of being in the booth.” This year, Verlander was an All-Star for the first time since 2013. His stats—156.1 innings in 24 starts, 11-6 record, 2.19 ERA, 204 strikeouts—are all close to if not the best in the league. Houston has the best pitching rotation in baseball and maybe one of the best of all time. 他稱那個叫"上天給飯吃"。他天生就知道要怎樣用非自然方式丟東西，即使現在35歲了，他的手臂仍就可以投出爆裂火球。「我真的很高興我不用再面對他了，」A-Rod說。「可以當球評真的太爽惹。」今年是自2013後，Verlander再次入選全明星，24次先發，156.1 局，11-6，ERA 2.19，204次三振，不是聯盟最佳也是接近聯盟最佳。太色目前先發輪值是聯盟最強，或許也是史上最強之一。 “I’d say it’s impossible, what he’s doing,” Houston manager AJ Hinch says, “but we’re all sitting here watching him do it.” 「我會說他所做到的是不可能辦得到的，」太色總教練AJ Hinch說，「但是我們現在正在目睹這一切。」 Thing is, you can’t see impossible; you can only see signs that what is happening shouldn’t be. From up close, you can see clues that suggest what Verlander is doing should not, in fact, be possible at all. As he sits half-dressed in the clubhouse, he shows the expected signs of aging. Balding on the crown. Salty gray hairs peppered through the temples and beard. Lines around the eyes. Time has left its marks. More, too, counting ones you can’t see. Anger that smolders like hungry embers. Surgical scars on his hips. Mementos from paths taken in the past. 實情是，我們不能看到"不可能"；我們只可能看到不應該發生的事情的徵兆。仔細觀察，你可以看到Verlander所做的，是實際上不可能做到的。當他坐在球隊休息室裡，可以看到他有老化的樣子。頭頂開始有點禿了，頭髮兩邊跟鬍子開始有白毛，眼睛周圍也有了細紋，時間也是在他身上留下了痕跡，有些看不到的可能更多。霸氣像是燃燒殆盡的餘火，他的髖部有著開刀的痕跡，這一路以來的榮光也已過去。 You wouldn’t know, watching him on the mound this season, that Verlander was one of the broken ones. Four years ago, three years after his MVP season, his fastball barely touched 90 at its low point. He gave up more runs than any other pitcher in the American League. His shoulder hurt. He felt weak. “It was so emotional,” says Kate Upton, the supermodel and, as of last November, Verlander’s wife. “He was in so much pain, and he was just trying to find the best path back.” 看著這一季的Verlander，誰會知道他也曾經是壞掉的投手。四年前，也就是在拿下MVP的三年後，他的速球在他最糟的時候幾乎投不到90mile，他丟掉的分數比美聯任何一個投手都多，他的肩膀受傷，他覺得弱到極點。「那真的很讓人情緒就上來，」超模Kate Upton 說，去年11月她嫁給了Verlander。「他很痛苦，他試著找到最好的方式回歸。」 The path he found from there to here wasn’t easy. He had to suffer new pain before he could rid himself of the old. Trust new people; a new process. To become great again he had to unlearn the techniques that made him great in the first place. He’d been harming himself unknowingly, making little mistakes that he could not see. 他找到的回歸方式並不輕鬆。他得先要忍受新的痛苦，才能擺脫舊的。信任新的人，信任這新的過程。要再次偉大前，他得要先忘記之前讓他偉大的技巧，他以前在他沒有察覺到的狀況下其實在傷害他的身體，他持續犯著他沒看到的小錯誤。 Upton helped show him the way. “Who knows,” Verlander says, “if I’m even here if it wasn’t for her?” Upton幫助他找到回歸的方式。「誰知道呢？」Verlander說。「如果沒有她，我還會在回到這裡嗎？」 They met in early 2012 while shooting a commercial. The first time they hung out, Verlander and Upton realized that whatever happened between them would happen with the outside world watching. They went to an Aerosmith concert in Detroit and afterward to a bar, where a random woman took pictures of them with her phone. They appeared online. Reporters called. Bar sources confirmed canoodling. Gossip ensued. 他們倆是在2012年拍廣告的時候相遇，當他們第一次約會，他們就了解到他們之間的發展是全世界都在看的。當他們一起在底特律看完史密斯飛船演唱會後去一個酒吧，一個路人用手機拍下他們兩個的照片，很快就上了網路，記者開始打電話，酒吧裡的人證實他們兩個很親密，然後八卦就爆開了。 They kept their relationship light and fun through the next year—“just friendly,” Verlander says—until a day cruise with some friends on a yacht off the coast of Southern California deepened their bond. “It felt like the first time we really got to know the other person,” Upton says. “It felt...like finding a friend. A real friend.” 他們之後那一整年維持著平穩但是有趣的關係--「就只是朋友，」Verlander說--直到有一天他們跟著一些朋友坐著遊艇在南加州海岸航行時，這關係開始加溫。「就像是忽然第一次我們真正了解對方，」Upton說。「那像是找到了一個朋友，一個真正的朋友。」照片: Verlander跟Upton連袂參加MLB今年七月活動一起走紅毯 https://imgur.com/16ACad6.jpg

As the couple’s relationship progressed, Verlander’s body began to show signs of wear. His arm started hurting during the 2013 season, and although he managed to perform at a high level—he earned an All-Star spot and pitched well throughout the playoffs—the pain steadily grew. Then, during the offseason—a time in which rest and training should render one renewed— Verlander hurt his groin while doing a squat. 而隨著小倆口感情的加溫，Verlander的身體開始出現的損傷的癥狀。2013球季，他的手臂開始覺得疼痛，但是他還是維持著高檔的演出--入選全明星，季後仍舊表現亮眼--但是手臂的疼痛也是逐漸增加。然後，在休賽季的時候--休息跟訓練應該是要讓他恢復的-- Verlander在做蹲坐的時候傷了他的鼠蹊部。 It was a freak injury—one that can happen but typically does not without some sort of slow erosion or mounting pressure being put on the body. An MRI revealed that, in addition to separating the tendon from the bone, Verlander also had an undiagnosed core muscle injury in his rectus abdominis (abdominal muscles). His adductors (hip muscles), doctors explained, had finally given out after having compensated for a weakened core for some time. “It had slowly started peeling away,” Verlander says. “Something’s gotta take the brunt of it, right?” 那個傷勢很奇特--通常是出現在緩慢的磨損或是身上持續背著重物的狀況。核磁共振發現，除了肌腱與骨頭分離外，Verlander還有在他的腹直肌有未診斷出的核心肌群傷勢，醫師解釋，因為核心肌群的傷勢，他的臀部內收肌群過度代償最後就不行了。「整個狀況就是一個接著一個垮下去，」Verlander說。「總是要還的，是吧?!」 Verlander needed bilateral sports hernia repair surgery. So he went to a top surgeon in Philadelphia and afterward, recovered in a nearby hotel. Upton— living in New York at the time—was the first person to visit him. They watched TV and played board games in their pajamas. Lots of Yahtzee. Both Upton and Verlander, it turned out, were fiercely competitive; upon losing, they cursed and threw things. “That’s probably where I’m most comfortable, ” Upton says. “Playing board games and joking around and just hanging out is kind of what I love doing.” Verlander需要雙側運動疝氣修復手術，所以他去了費城找了頂尖外科醫師幫他，之後在那附近的飯店恢復。那時候Upton住在紐約，是第一個去探視Verlander的人。他們那段時間穿著睡衣，一起看電視，一起玩桌遊，玩了很多快艇骰子(Yahtzee)。後來發現，Upton跟 Verlander其實都是極度有競爭性的人，當快輸的時候，都會幹譙跟丟東西。「那段時間大概是我最舒服的時候了，」Upton說。「玩桌遊，瞎扯淡，就是兩個人相處，那就是我最愛做的事情了。」 Richard and Kathy, Justin’s parents, also visited from time to time. They teased their son about his constipation—a common side effect of such surgery. How is your stomach? Does it hurt? As the jokes continued, Upton went to a store, bought everything that Google said could remedy such discomfort, and returned bearing bags of pills and “holistic movement solutions.” “His parents say that was the moment they knew they loved me,” she says. Verlander的雙親在那段時間偶而也會去探望他，他們會對Verlander的便秘問題--在手術後的副作用--開起玩笑來。你的肚子好點沒? 痛嗎? 隨著開玩笑，Upton則會去商店，找著她Google來的祕方可以解除Verlander的不舒服，最後通常會買了一堆藥丸或是"天然整腸秘方"等。「他的爸媽說那就是他們愛上我的時刻了，」Upton說。 The 2014 season was full of more struggles. Verlander worked his way back onto the mound, but his shoulder still hurt. (“Just a hot fucking mess,” Verlander says.) The more games he pitched, the more pain he felt in his shoulder, and the more his performance declined. No other pitcher in the American League gave up more runs than he did that season. 2014年也是充滿掙扎，Verlander還是努力的重回投手丘，但是他的肩膀還是很痛(「就是他媽的糟，」Verlander說)。他投得越多，痛越來越明顯，他的狀況更是每況愈下。在那一季，美聯沒有一個投手丟掉的分數比他多。 (待續) -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc), 來自: 61.222.1.181 ※ 文章網址: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/MLB/M.1534837194.A.FDA.html

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