Big league pop culture: 5 questions with Adam Jones
Sure, they've reached athletic heights most people dare not dream of, enjoy celebrity status, and earn ungodly amounts of money in endorsements deals, but, just like the rest of us, Major League Baseball players still enjoy vegging out and watching far too many episodes of premium cable television in succession.
Last Friday, hours before his Baltimore Orioles dropped a one-run game to the Toronto Blue Jays in front of 46,112 at Rogers Centre, five-time All-Star Adam Jones opened up about what he's watching these days - note: the dude really digs zombie and vampire shows - while also touching on some other pop-culture topics in a new series dubbed, wait for it, Big League Pop Culture.
theScore: Which TV series are you in the middle of right now?
Jones: I've seen "The Night Manager," which is really good. A short series. I like "The Strain," that one's pretty good. I've seen the new "Roots" - that's a really good one. Right now, I'm in the middle of "Containment," and I just finished "Criminal Minds." Besides that, I'm also into "Ray Donovan" and I'm big on those ESPN 30 for 30s.
"Ray Donovan" - starring Liev Schreiber as a brooding, often contemptible Hollywood "fixer" - pulled in 1.1 million viewers for its Season 4 premiere on June 26, according to Deadline - a seven-percent increase over last year's season opener. (For reference's sake, the Miami Marlins have drawn a combined 1.157 million fans to their 53 home games in 2016.)
theScore: If they were to adapt your life and career into a movie, who would play you?
Jones: To play me, it'd be probably the dude that played Jackie Robinson (in "42" - Chadwick Boseman). Seems like a good-looking guy; (we) got the same height; he has a background in playing ball.
In a 2013 Vanity Fair interview, Boseman said he played Little League Baseball growing up, but noted that basketball was his "primary sport." In all likelihood, this probably helped him get the gig, seeing as Robinson himself lettered in basketball (and baseball and football and track) at UCLA before breaking the color barrier with the Dodgers in 1947.
theScore: If you had to pick one MLB player to join you in a two-on-one game against Steph Curry, up to 11, who would you pick?
Jones: Mark Hendrickson. He doesn't play anymore, but he played in the NBA. Former Oriole, he was here for a quick minute.
Hendrickson, a 6-foot-9 left-hander out of Washington State, is one of just 12 athletes to play in both the NBA and MLB. In 2000, four years after his NBA debut, Hendrickson gave up his hoop dreams to focus exclusively on baseball. He ended up spending a decade in the bigs, with his final three seasons coming in Baltimore.
theScore: Which of your teammates would be most into Pokemon Go?
Jones: None of 'em.
Though the app hasn't caught on in the Orioles' clubhouse, Pokemon Go set a new Apple record for downloads in its first week, the tech giant confirmed. If, like Jones and his teammate, you're not into it yet, think of Pokemon Go as kind of like Yasiel Puig: impressive at first, but destined to tail off.
theScore: Which active player most evokes the coolness of Ken Griffey Jr.?
Jones: I'd say myself and Andrew McCutchen.
Interestingly enough, when Griffey Jr. was asked in 2014 which young outfielder's playing style most resembles his own, the newly inducted Hall of Famer named McCutchen, who took home the National League MVP award the previous year.