The last couple of days I’ve been working on something very exciting! In case you don’t know, Mike Zunino is a recent addition to the Rays, and he also happens to be a former Gator player. He was the Gators’ catcher from 2010-2012 and has since gone on to have a successful career in the majors. Ever since he was drafted, he’s been playing for the Seattle Mariners…far away from Gainesville and his hometown of Cape Coral. But now, after being traded to the Rays this past offseason, his friends and family will have more opportunities to come out to games and see him play. I thought this was a really cool idea for a story and thought it’d be worth looking into how this makes everyone involved feel.
So, being a UF student, I wanted to talk to his former coach and teammates at Florida and find out what they had to say about Zunino and his return home. I was first able to talk to Tommy Toledo who was a pitcher at UF during Zunino’s time there. Tommy had nothing but great things to say about his former catcher. He loved every second of playing with him and has so many great memories of Mike from throughout his career that he recounted to me. Here’s a clip of our conversation:
I was also lucky enough to be able to talk with Paco Rodriguez, another member of the pitching staff during Zunino’s time there. Paco shared the exact same feelings about Mike and talked about how not only was he great on the field, but he was also amazing off the field. In talking with him, I learned even more stories about Zunino that just show the kind of character he has and the type of player he was during his UF career.
The other person I talked to, so far, for this story is Kevin O’Sullivan, the coach of the Gators. Sully praised Mike for all he did during his time at Florida, and again, echoed the thoughts of both of his former pitchers. He shared some of his own stories about the work ethic and leadership Zunino showed, and obviously still has to this day considering how successful he’s been in the majors. Sully touched on how excited he is to have Mike back in Florida and how happy everyone in his life is to have him back close to home.
Now my next step in working on this story is to talk to Zunino himself, and I’m planning on doing that within the next few days. I’m excited to hear about things from his perspective and what coming home really means to him. I’m so excited to start putting all these pieces together, and I think this is going to turn out to be a really cool and fun story that I’m looking forward to sharing with everyone one it’s all finished!
Work at the Trop 