In Wilson\u2019s 40th game, the shortstop homered twice in a 4-for-5 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. That put his batting average at an eye-popping .363 in an era when only six other players hit at least .300 this season. Wilson caught Judge in the batting title race on Sept. 10 at .319 apiece before Judge ended the season on a tear.<\/p>\n
With his slick fielding, Wilson was a runaway AL Rookie of the Year favorite until the explosion of teammate Nick Kurtz, who Wilson honors by wearing \u201cThe Big Amish\u201d T-shirt for Kurtz\u2019 moniker.<\/p>\n
Wilson became the first All-Star starting rookie shortstop since 1960. For the A\u2019s, he was the first starting All-Star shortstop since Bert Campaneris in 1974 and the youngest All-Star starter since Vida Blue in 1971. No rookie shortstop had been ever voted to start by fans in All-Star Game history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat entire week was crazy, and I enjoyed every bit of it,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe All-Star Game was the most important (achievement) to me. Being able to be named a starter by fans versus all the other great shortstops we have in this league, that is something that I’ll definitely take pride in for the rest of my career. Not a lot of words can describe it. It was just something that meant so much to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott McGough, a 35-year-old pitcher, became a recent fan and A\u2019s clubhouse neighbor but with a longtime connection.<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh-area native grew up watching Jacob\u2019s father, Jack, become an All-Star and play nine seasons for the Pirates, who used the A\u2019s Sept. 19 visit to re-enact a first pitch that 4-year-old Jacob threw to Jack in 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cJacob\u2019s an unbelievable talent,\u201d McGough said. \u201cI looked up to his dad a lot, and he reminds me a lot of him. Just a great worker, a grinder. He never gives up on an at bat. He always finds a hole. He hits it anywhere on the field, which is an incredible skill to have. He\u2019s just a special talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see the maturity at a young age, which is an impressive skill. He\u2019s everything you want in a good, young player.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Wilson\u2019s 40th game, the shortstop homered twice in a 4-for-5 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. That…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-181110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}