Main League Baseball participant Adam Frazier has used his love of whisky to attach with different members of the clubhouse. (Picture by Eric Ryan Anderson)
In 2021, Adam Frazier added an MLB All-Star look to his résumé and some alternative bottles of bourbon to his bar. “My assortment’s form of gotten uncontrolled,” the second baseman says. “I feel we’re as much as 60 or 70 simply from the season.”
That’s partly as a result of Frazier racked up accolades and whisky bottles on the similar time, with Pittsburgh Pirates supervisor Derek Shelton awarding bottles primarily based on participant efficiency. For instance, Frazier bought a bottle of Previous Fitzgerald—Shelton’s favourite—for being named the beginning second baseman for the Nationwide League All-Star group, whereas a bottle of Weller Particular Reserve entered his assortment with “0-2 to 4-2” scrawled throughout it in silver marker. Frazier, who completed the 2021 season with a .305 batting common, had turned an 0-2 depend right into a stroll, and scored some bourbon due to it.
“We had a system in Pittsburgh. Principally, there’s a couple of unhealthy issues that you can do and also you’d owe a bottle. After which there have been a couple of issues that you simply do nicely, you can earn a bottle,” Frazier says. Shelton knew which of his gamers favored whisky essentially the most, “so he’d give a bit higher bourbon to these guys.”
Frazier relies in Nashville, and although he’s solely visited Nelson’s Inexperienced Brier Distillery, he’s keen to absorb extra of the town’s whisky scene and make his solution to the Kentucky Bourbon Path. “I actually bought into bourbon the previous couple years,” he says. “However I wish to dive into the method and every part else a bit extra—simply haven’t had the chance to do it but.” He has, nonetheless, performed at Tennessee’s famed Sweetens Cove Golf Membership, taking the customary shot of whisky earlier than hitting the hyperlinks—and in addition owns a bottle of Sweetens Cove bourbon, which he had beforehand forgotten about.
Whereas he admits to shedding observe of the whiskies he’s collected, most of his bottles getting boxed up throughout the season, he shares freely as soon as they’re out, internet hosting weekly whisky and cigar nights along with his associates. “I form of steer guys sure instructions on which of them that I like or what type they like, simply from previous,” he says, noting Hibiki Concord as a crowd favourite. “I’m not a genius by any means, on the subject of [whisky], however I really like studying about it and I really like speaking about it.”
Figuring out how one can share and focus on whisky has served Frazier in his skilled life as nicely. Halfway via the 2021 season, he was traded to the San Diego Padres, the place he used a love of whisky to attach along with his new clubhouse. “All of us have that dialog of ‘What [do] you want?’” he says. “[Manny] Machado, he’s extra of a scotch man than a bourbon man, however I turned him on to some issues.”
Frazier’s baseball journey took one other flip in November, when he was traded as soon as once more, this time to the Seattle Mariners. As of December 2021, he had solely spoken to some of his new teammates, however hoped to make some new whisky associates as soon as the season began.
His whisky journey has taken some fascinating turns as nicely. Although he isn’t a lot a fan of rye, he can nonetheless recognize a bottle of WhistlePig The Boss Hog VI: Samurai Scientist, which he obtained as a present from pitcher Jake Arrieta, and can be moving into tequila a bit. “Simply to sip on,” he says. “The great stuff.” Extra so, he’s a collector of Blanton’s, E.H. Taylor, Blood Oath, and Yamazaki, and has a couple of Woodford Reserve Kentucky Derby bottles as nicely.
Frazier counts Elmer T. Lee, Weller 12, and Yamasaki amongst his favourite whiskies. (Picture by Eric Ryan Anderson)
As for that bottle of Previous Fitzgerald that Shelton shocked him with final July, Frazier says he solely only in the near past cracked it open. “I’ll give it to him, it’s fairly good,” he says.
Icon Insider
Who: Adam Frazier, Seattle Mariners second baseman
Beforehand performed for: Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres
Favourite type: Bourbon and Japanese whisky
Go-to whiskies: Elmer T. Lee, Hibiki, Weller 12 12 months previous
Neat vs. rocks: “That’s the factor about ingesting bourbon, you form of determine, at what quantity proof you want a bit ice in there. In any other case, I attempt to keep neat, simply so you may get pleasure from all of the flavors.”
