Boxing and baseball intersect!
It’s no secret many athletes cross train, dabbling in dual sports.
Blessed with their superior athleticism, there are countless sports stars who combine boxing with their other chosen field. There are boxers, like Roy Jones Jr. and Michael Grant, who both have some mad basketball skills to showcase. There are also NBA superstars like Shaquille O’Neal, who love to lace up. And football players like Herschel Walker, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Mark Gastineau, Charlie Powell and the late Lyle Alzado, who have also have spent time standing toe-to-toe against their pugilistic foes as well as the gridiron. And baseball’s infamous Jose Canseco just stepped into the ring last Friday night in a four-round boxing exhibition. So whether they’re taking swings at the plate or swings in the ring, these two sports seem to somehow connect at times.
So it should come as no surprise that many legends in baseball are big boxing fans as well.
One living legend who is known for including the disciples of the sweet science into 
his workouts while building a career as a future Hall of Famer is Bob Feller, Cleveland Indians pitching icon, who enjoyed boxing and was even good friends with former heavyweight champ, Gene Tunney.
Who knows? Things might have been very different for the World Series champ, “Pitcher of the Year” and eight-time All Star if he had chosen boxing as his future career instead of the mound! Perhaps if he had put down the baseball and put on the boxing gloves, the Cooperstown favorite really “coulda been a contenda.”
You see, the talented teen used boxing to hone the strength and accuracy of his precious pitching arm. Years ago, I was at a sports event where he and Archie “The Old Mongoose” Moore had a meet-and-greet, and we had a chance to chat about boxing for a couple of minutes. Back in his boyhood in Iowa, Feller told me he used to work out all the time on a heavy bag installed on his porch. Even after he enlisted in the Navy and was actually sworn in by boxer Tunney, the hurler is known to have continued to include boxing in his workouts, saying he trained regularly on both a speed bag and the heavy bags.
This boxing workout probably helped him increase arm strength, perfect his rhythm, while offering intense cardio and conditioning too.
I had a chance to reconnect with the former pitching phenom during the 81st MLB All-Star Game’s festivities in Anaheim, California. The strikeout king turns 92 this fall, but he hasn’t slowed down much since the first time I met him. While saying hello to the great, I mentioned that we had met a few years ago. He replied with a cheerful smile, “Nice to see you again!” Now the chances of Feller actually remembering our brief meeting are probably quite slim, but the baseball player remains a real gentlemen, a genuine first class act.
There were many events at the Anaheim Convention Center and Angel Stadium to celebrate the return of the “Midsummer Classic” to the home of the Angels. Combining boxing and baseball, check out some fun snapshots from the various events where I caught up with boxing trainer and sculptor Steve Harpst, boxing fans and brothers Tony and Eli Lopez, and even popular TV actor James Denton (Mike Delfino on “Desperate Housewives”), who also had fun “putting up his dukes.”
We visited with the Lopez bros at the All-Star FanFest celebration in Orange County, where the two worked as MVP Volunteers during the five-day festival that drew thousands and thousands from all over the world. The siblings from the Inland Empire had a blast during their breaks adding signatures to their prized Angels jerseys. They also talked boxing with Coach Harpst, as younger brother Eli admitted with a laugh, “I haven’t had an official fight in the ring yet, but I’ve had plenty of ‘street fights’!” The guys love boxing with Tony adding, “My favorites are Ali, Marciano and Frazier.”
Eli chimes in with, “Oh, I have a lot too! Sugar Ray Leonard, Bernard Hopkins, Manny Pacquiao…I like all of them–except Lennox Lewis!”
“Why don’t you like Lennox Lewis?” I ask him, puzzled why he would single out the British-born former undisputed heavyweight champ.
“I don’t know,” he replies chuckling with a shrug. “Just the way he fought, I didn’t like it for some reason.”
While the boys had a blast meeting Hall of Famers, Gold Glove champs, World Series titlists like Bob Feller, Harmon Killebrew, Tony Gwynn, Juan Marichal, Luis Aparicio, Orlando Cepeda, Steve Garvey, Earl Weaver, Tommy John, Shawn 
Green, Jim Fregosi and tons of others, we girls got a brush with the hunky TV star. After playing in Sunday’s Celebrity Softball Game, James Denton returned on Tuesday for the main event–the All-Star game.
I told him we were there with some boxing pals and the good-natured actor held up his fist and gave his best game face for the cameras.
During the day, former amateur boxer Harpst’s highlight was one with first baseman Orlando Cepeda. “I met you in Pompano Beach, Florida when I was just a little kid,” he told the Puerto Rican slugger. “It was during a Spring Training game.”
Cepeda thought about it for a few seconds, looked at Harpst carefully and said, “Yeah! That game was against Washington.” Wow, what a memory these baseball heroes have.
Then it was time for the big show as the American League squared off against the National League at “The Big A” right down the road from Disneyland. But the baseball field got top billing as the “happiest place on earth” last night. And after nine innings of competition, the National League (winning 3-1) were declared the 2010 Champions, their first victory since 1996!
After leaving the champs on the diamond, we stopped at one of the host hotels in the area where we ran into two power players in Major League Baseball, Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB’s Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and Darrell Miller, MLB’s Vice President of the Youth and Facility Development. These two men are both innovative forces in the sport, whom we first met while Harpst, who is also an artist, was commissioned for bronze monuments at the Urban Youth Academy and also Big League Dreams Sports Park in Southern California.
The Miller family are legends in L.A.; Darrell is a former Angels catcher, his brother is Indiana Pacers superstar Reggie Miller and his sister Cheryl Miller is no slouch either, as a heralded college star at USC, U.S. Gold Medalist, and current NBA broadcaster.
As we chatted with the two heavy hitters from MLB, Miller, who was accompanied by his pretty wife, Kelly, told us that Jimmie Lee loves boxing.
The energetic and friendly Solomon then quickly put up a strong fist, confirming that besides baseball, he does also enjoy boxing!
There you have it. Boxing and baseball…America’s two favorite pastimes?
Photos courtesy of Michele Chong