Former Rebel SS Zack Cozart, now with the Cincinnati Reds, has been selected to his first MLB All-Star game. After an impressive first half of the season, Cozart received over two million fan votes and will start at shortstop for the NL All-Star team. While Cozart was just happy to be on the team, he is especially honored by the amount of fan support he received to be named a starter in July 11th’s All-Star Game.
“I was shocked to be starting. I was hoping just to make the team, and when I was told about the starting nod, I was pumped,” Cozart told ESPN’s Karl Ravech. “It’s always one of those individual goals to make an all-star team, but when you get that starting nod, you know the fans voted for you, and it’s just a really cool feeling.”
Not only does Cozart get the honor of being an All-Star, but he may also soon become a proud donkey owner. During spring training, Cozart and his son spent time feeding the donkeys at a farm in Arizona near the team’s facility. Reds 1B Joey Votto caught wind of it and decided on a unique reward for Cozart if he was able to end up on the All-Star roster. Votto promised his teammate a donkey, and Cozart has every reason to believe that he’s going to pay up.
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What may have started out as a joke among teammates has quickly become reality, and now Cozart has to work on finding a way to accommodate a donkey.
“It started off as just ha, ha, ha … but it got real really quick,” Cozart told ESPN. “Now I’ve got to go search for some land.”
Cozart is hitting .322 with 9 home runs and 33 RBIs nearing the midway point of the season.
Steven Gagliano is the managing editor of HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at steven.gagliano@hottytoddy.com.
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