‘Crazy’ Cat Tyrrell makes major impression at baseball diamond

Jackie Tyrrell was described as a "crazy Irishman" because of his insistence on catching a baseball during his five-day spell training with Major League Baseball team, The Miami Marlins.

The Kilkenny defender said his temporary team-mates were taken aback by his reluctance to use a mitt and avoid breaking a finger.

“I brought a hurl and a ball. A few of them had actually heard of it. But they couldn’t believe the players were amateurs. I was pucking with them. They catch the ball with the glove and at one stage I was pucking with a guy only 20 yards away into his hand but the coach came over and told him to stop pucking because he feared he’d break a finger or something like that.

“I showed them my fingers. Over there I was trying to catch the ball with the glove and I just couldn’t do it, the ball kept popping out. You have to catch it up high in the glove rather than in the palm of your hand.

“So I took off the glove and they thought I was crazy. They were saying ‘you won’t catch it, you won’t catch it’ but it was just like catching a hurling ball. You’ll see in the documentary, they are saying ‘this Irish guy is crazy’. I suppose it just shows GAA players put their bodies on the line whereas they are a lot more padded, wearing gloves and things like that.”

Tyrrell reported his hand-eye coordination was as good as the batters — “it was just the technicalities and the mechanics that I struggled with”.

Tyrrell, more an American football fan, says the experience hasn’t much changed his opinion of the sport. “The game is very dragged out, lethargic, even some of the local baseball players were saying it can be boring at times.”

Tyrrell, though, did meet one of the game’s superstar Giancarlo Stanton who last year signed the most lucrative playing contract in sports history worth $325m (€307m).

“What is going on in his head? The only thing I could think of is that in every GAA player, there’s that burning desire to be the best.

“That’s all I could think of and it’s the same thing with us if you’re a GAA player with Kilkenny or Dublin, hurler or footballer or baseball player, ultimately everyone wants to be the best. That burning desire inside him.”

Tyrrell said there was no issue with Brian Cody about him going on the trip. “I just said I’d be asked to get involved in this AIB initiative and told him a bit about it. I’m hugely focused and I know exactly how to look after myself so I think Brian knows me at this stage and there was no problem.”