Eric Sorenson
Paul Goldschmidt is no longer the best kept secret in baseball.
The Arizona Diamondbacks’ cornerstone will be the National League’s starting first baseman in next week’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Cincinnati.
His numbers through the first half of the season have been jaw-dropping.
His consistency nearly as impressive.
“Goldy” truly is, as his teammates coined him a couple years back, “America’s First Baseman.”
Goldschmidt handles his business between the lines and off-the-field with a professionalism peers respect and organizations crave from their young star players.
“There is one player in Major League history that he reminds me of and it’s Al Kaline,” ESPN baseball insider Pedro Gomez told Sports360AZ.com during his recent weekly segment. “Just a quiet, put your head down, go to work [player]. At the end of the day anything you want to talk about is about the team, not me.”
The former Detroit Tigers outfielder turned first baseman was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980 after a 21-year career which spanned for 1953 to 1974, all in the “Motor City.” The 18-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove Award winner collected 3,007 hits (399 home runs) and drove in nearly 1,600 runs. His career batting average was .297.
Like Kaline, “Goldy” has hit for power (103 career homers) and average (.300) in just under 550 games played. The 27-year-old star from Wilmington, Delaware is frequently mentioned among the best players in the present era along with other young standouts like the Angels’ Mike Trout.
Goldschmidt goes about his work with a lunch-pail attitude and a focus on perfecting his craft. He and his wife Amy have also become a staple in the Phoenix community establishing Goldy’s Fund 4 Kids benefitting Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
“He is not a look-at-me-guy,” Gomez explained. “That’s what makes him so appealing…those guys do not come along very often.”
No one understands this better than the Diamondbacks.
A team player in every sense of the word.
