The Oakland Athletics are not used to getting national attention unless, of course, Brad Pitt is in town doing his best Billy Beane impersonation.
That might be just part of the reason A's pitcher Brandon McCarthy was surprised to find himself on the latest cover of ESPN the Magazine.
The right-hander was interviewed for a story about how he used analytics to change his throwing motion.
McCarthy thought the story was no big deal until an area code from Bristol showed up on his phone.
"It's weird," he told Susan Slusser. "I thought it was a small little story based on analytics, and a week ago, they were like, 'We'd like a shoot with you and your wife.' I said, 'For what?' "
That's where perhaps the real motivation for the story was revealed. McCarthy's wife, Amanda, a former model, is quoted in the story and the magazine wanted her to pose with her husband for the cover shoot in "skimpy attire."
She declined but appeared on the cover anyway.
Brandon McCarthy is seen wearing his A's uniform, and his wife is seen wearing something a little more revealing to go with the headline "Chicks Dig the Ground Ball."
"I'm still weirded out by it," McCarthy told The Oakland Tribune. "It was originally just a regular article. Somehow it just got bigger and bigger."
ESPN apparently needed something to offset the "Linsanity."
