Bobby Madritsch-action

[Max Power]

Should MLB be concerned about Bobby M having a "distraction" for hitters - - his tats.

Could he be forced to wear a jersey to cover that?

[JamesI]

If the hitters complain, they'll make him wear a sleve. But I don't think it will be a big deal.

[LeGrandOrange]

It's not an earring. It's not going to glimmer from 60'6" away. To my knowledge at least.

I think they'll allow it until Omar bitches.

[pwdennis]

I doubt that it is a problem for batters, although they should airbrush it out if MLB wants to use this guy in it's ads

[sweaver]

Originally posted by JamesI
If the hitters complain, they'll make him wear a sleeve. But I don't think it will be a big deal.

As long as it's not a slit sleeve.

Lakota? Is this guy a "native American?"

[Max Power]

Fun-knee Sweav........
Yeah, he's NA - - read about him somewhere - - thought we had a thread on him - - he's covered with tats on his heritage.......seems like it was just yesterday that I was reading about him............

[Max Power]

It was a BBA article:

Madritsch bounces back from tough start
By Blair Lovern
September 17, 2002

Early this season it would have been tough to imagine Bobby Madritsch finishing with any sort of flourish.

But the Winnipeg lefthander went 11-4, 2.30, setting two team and two Northern League records, including a league record for strikeouts in a season (153). In August he went 4-0, 0.66 and was named the league’s pitcher of the month.

"(Pitching coach) Rick Forney said the other day that Bobby Madritsch is probably the best prospect he’s ever seen (in the Northern League), and I’d probably have to agree with him because of what he’s accomplished," manager Hal Lanier told the Winnipeg Sun.

It’s all the more impressive because Madritsch’s season could have hardly started in a more gut-wrenching way.

In spring training some fans charged that the 26-year-old was a white supremacist, after they saw a Sun newspaper photo of what looked like a Nazi swastika. What they didn’t know is that Madritsch is a member of the Oglala Nation of Sioux Indians and nine of his 11 tattoos, including the mistaken one, represent his family heritage. The Nazis twisted their symbol from one used for centuries by several cultures to mean qualities such as good luck and prosperity.

The day after the picture ran, the Winnipeg Sun ran a story explaining what the tattoo meant. Madritsch has designed his own tattoos for years–even sold some designs to parlors for a few hundred dollars–and has adorned himself with some in honor of his mother. She left her tribe a few months after Madritsch was born and hasn’t been heard from since.

"Madritsch is anything but a racist," wrote Paul Friesen in the Sun.

"What you do pick up from this 26-year-old from Chicago are positive values, like family, love and peace. . . . Imagine that, an Indian white supremacist."

Madritsch said people often ask him about his tattoos, but he’s never had so much publicity about them as then.

"When I first talked about it, I was happy," he said. "I was overwhelmed that they would even care about my heritage. But when it became bad publicity, I was mad and a little upset."

The issue may have carried into the beginning of the season somewhat, because Madritsch struggled. Instead of helping anchor the rotation, he went 0-3, 5.64 and was sent to the bullpen. Forney said he still believed Madritsch had great talent, with a fastball in the low 90s, but that the lefty needed to gain more confidence.

Madritsch soon found it and bounced back into the rotation to help lead the Goldeyes into the playoffs.

The Reds drafted Madritsch in the sixth round in 1998 out of NAIA Point Park (Pa.) College. He finished an impressive season with Rookie-level Billings that summer, leading the league in strikeouts with 87 while going 7-3, 2.80. Baseball America named him the seventh-best prospect in the league, one spot behind teammate Adam Dunn. Austin Kearns, named the No. 1 league prospect then, also played for Billings.

But Madritsch had shoulder surgery after the season and sat out all of 1999. While in rehab Madritsch had a medicine wheel, intended to help keep the wearer healthy, tattooed on his neck.

Rather than release him, the Reds held onto him, and he pitched 32 innings in his return in 2000, finishing at Class A Dayton. He has remained injury-free since the operation, but the Reds let him go in 2000. He then went the independent route.

He split 2001 between the Texas-Louisiana League and the Western League before the Goldeyes signed him last spring. After what he did this year, about six major league clubs have expressed an interest in signing Madritsch.

"I’m proud to be a Native American, and that’s always going to be with me," he said. "If I can be a role model for other native Americans, that’s what I want to be. I would definitely talk to kids and would never shy away from that, more or less just to set a real good example for my people and to let them know that we still exist somewhere out there."