MLB Star Adam LaRoche Bags Montrous 12-Point Elk
We’re all familiar with Adam LaRoche as a first-baseman for MLB, but what may come as a surprise is his keenness for hunting. According to Bleacher Report, LaRoche spends a good bit of his spare time during the offseason dressed in camouflage, paint on his face, weapons in hand, searching for game.
LaRoche enjoys hunting so much that he has his own award-winning big game hunting TV show, Buck Commander, on the Outdoor Channel, where fans can watch him in action with his bow and rifle, as per Yahoo! News. LaRoche’s good friend, Willie Robertson from Duck Dynasty, helped him start the hit show back in 2004.
LaRoche seemed to have an amazing amount of success on his most recent hunting venture, when he spotted and shot what Bleacher Report calls “one of the biggest cloven hoof animals in North America.”
At 3:19 p.m. on November 5, LaRoche tweeted a picture of himself bending down next to the gigantic cloven hoof, 12-point beast after the kill, somewhere deep in the woods of Wyoming, with his gun in the forefront.
His tweet read, “Thank you, Lord for the Rocky Mountain Elk!! #BuckCommander.”
Buck Commander is the official Instagram account which LaRoche co-founded, and Buck Commander posted the same picture of LaRoche and the Elk, with the caption, “Adam LaRoche is on the board with a GIANT bull taken in the back country of WY! Congrats brother!” as reported by Bleacher Report.
When Hunting Illustrated asked LaRoche why he hunts, he was quick to answer.
“Because it is my absolute passion. I like baseball and it’s what I do but I love to hunt. I would have to say that I play baseball so I can hunt and it has blessed me with great opportunities in the hunting world. My dad was an avid bird hunter and he loved the sport. I spent a lot of time in the hills with him on his hunts. For my 13th birthday he bought me a PSE bow and that was all it took. I shot my first buck when I was fifteen and from that point on I was addicted.”
Not everyone appreciates the sport of hunting, however. And while many big game hunters are foaming at the mouth, wishing they had made a kill such as this, others are outraged.
LaRoche’s former Washington Nationals teammate, pitcher Dan Haren, may be one of those few, based on his response tweet to LaRoche.
Haren wrote, “@e3laroche poor elk, just minding his own business eating some leaves and boom, dead. Atleast you’re having fun.”
Yahoo! News reports that Haren’s personality is such that most of his tweets are “tongue-in-cheek,” so it is likely Haren is just ragging on LaRoche a bit to get a rise out of him. Nonetheless, Yahoo! News reports that there may be a lot more people with the same reaction as Haren.
Interestingly enough, LaRoche lives on a huge ranch in Kansas with his lovely wife and two children, and has provided many excellent meals for his team — former team — the Washington Nationals during the last two seasons. The Washington Times reports that about once every two months, the Nationals’ clubhouse is delivered 800 pounds of steroid-and antibiotic-free Black Angus beef.
Literally two cow’s worth of meat that comes directly from LaRoche’s ranch. That’s good eating! And a lot of eating — the Washington Nationals team eats an average of one cow per month.
The Nationals hired chef Faisal Sultani to cook for the team. According to USA Today, Sultani says beef stroganoff is one of the team’s favorite, which he says requires 100 pounds of beef in one day.
The Washington Nationals may reconsider their decision to decline a $15 million option on his contract for 2015, not only because he led the majors last season of active first baseman with 33 homeruns and won the “Gold Glove Award” for his outstanding defense, but because once they see LaRoche with this massive elk, their tummies may start growling.
[Photo Credit: USAToday.com, BleacherReport.com, Twitter.com]
