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Sam Fuld, Diabetic, Shooting for Cubs Roster Spot

By thelowedown, March 17, 2010 at 11:27 pm
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Carrie Muskat, the beat writer for Cubs.com, has a great write up on Sam Fuld today. The young, diabetic outfielder has seen time with Cubs before, last season and in 2007. However, both of those times came as a mid or late season call up. This time around, Fuld is gunning to make the team out of spring training. The question is, will he?

Fuld is not having the best spring training so far.  He is only hitting .150, and he is competing to be an extra outfielder.  His competition includes Tyler Colvin, Brad Snyder, and Jim Adduci.  All have higher averages than Fuld. However, Fuld is not letting this get him down. "I'm going to attack it and be aggressive -- that's my nature," he said. "I try to do as much work as possible and try to figure things out."

Fuld is a small, aggressive guy.  In fact, he is only a wee bit taller than I am, and I am also a tad thinner. I know because I met Sam Fuld at a Cubs charity event last September at Harry Carey's in downtown Chicago.  I had a small conversation with him, and he came off as an extremely nice person. I won tickets to the charity event by submitting a question to the Harry Carey's twitter account for a contest they were having.  The question dealt with Sam Fuld's gameday preparation being a diabetic player.
Fuld considers baseball a good sport for a player with diabetes because "You have a lot of downtime in the dugout."  The downtime allows Fuld lots of time to check his blood sugar levels.  Fuld tests his blood sugar at least six times a day.  Fuld said "I knew it would be a challenge from the beginning, but I got great support all along and there was never a doubt in my mind that it would slow me down athletically."
If anyone has seen Fuld play, they know he does not let diabetes slow him down.  The scrappy outfielder has a penchant for running into walls and making great catches.
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Fuld says that the toughest part of being a diabetic player is not the physical aspect.  "It's more of a mental struggle than anything. The shots don't bother me, the finger pricking doesn't bother me. It's just the daily mental battle that can kind of wear you out." However, Fuld does get cheered up. "I enjoy meeting young diabetic kids and just speaking with them. You'd like to make a difference on a larger scale, but when you get that intimate, one-on-one connection with a kid, that feels pretty good, too."  That is the kind of person I believe Sam Fuld to be from the time I met him.
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Sam Fuld is not having a great Spring Training, but he should make this Cubs team. He is a great defensive ballplayer and a good baserunner. His hitting might not be here now, but he did hit .299 in 65 games last year.  I believe his hitting will come around if he makes the team.
While being with the Cubs, Fuld has had a mentor in Ron Santo.  The Cubs legend played with diabetes at a time when the disease was mostly unknown. When Santo played, he was  afraid that people knowing he had the disease would make him appear weak.  He hid diabetes during his playing days. Fuld had to adjust having the disease, but it has largely never bothered him. "I know [Santo] had it a lot harder than me. There was more of a stereotype associated with the disease back then and he had to hide it. I'm not uncomfortable telling anyone or doing what I need to do. Those days are long gone. When I was young, I'd be a little embarrassed about pulling out my meter in class. I learned to grow comfortable with it pretty quickly."
That attitude and level of comfort is what makes Sam Fuld unique.  He does not let his disease, or what someone says get in way.  He was not the type of person to automatically stand as the next major league player.  Like I said earlier, the guy is barely bigger than me.  But, he has always kept a positive attitude and believe himself.  In today's world, that is a heartwarming story.  Besides that, Fuld is hard worker and good baseball player.
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Sam Fuld at West Side Rooters Ball 2009

 

Filed under: Baseball, Cubs, Sports

Tags: baseball, carrie, carrie muskat, chicago, chicago cubbies, chicago cubs, cubbies, cubs, diabetes, diabetic, fuld, insulin, mlb, muskat, outfield, outfielder, ron, ron santo, roster, sam, sam fuld, santo, shot, spring, spring training, training

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