[StanGunner]

The National Herald

Sports …by “Specs Ward"

An FOFC Outfielder in batting slump.

Even though mired in a slump at the moment Stan Gunner continues to follow his Mother’s work ethic. If hard work, and then some more, can do the job, then Gunner will pay the price. He starts his offseason training schedule the day after the season. "I work out alone," he says. "If I'm running up a mountain, I pick a point to reach. Some days, I quit halfway. But the days you finish are the days you feel satisfied. I can't walk. I can't get up off the ground. It really feels like I'm going to die. All you can think is, tomorrow, stop just a little sooner. I don't ever want to feel this bad again in my life. But you get addicted. The next day, you try again."

Gunner may have gotten his drive from his mother, who raised him after a divorce when Stan was 3. She worked multiple jobs to take care of him and his 3 brothers. “I didn't figure it out until 10 years ago," says Gunner, 32. "She was a worker. When she had difficult times, she didn't want it to affect anybody else. She got through it herself. She was an admirable woman to me. Sometimes she doesn't know how good a mother I think she was. . . .

"When I was 7 and 8, I played ice hockey in Buffalo. We had practice at 1 a.m. She'd wake me up at midnight and say, "Stan, put on your pads." When I was older, she'd take me and my friends to school at 7 a.m. before she went to work, then take me to the batting cage after school. Now that I'm the age that she was then, I think, Wait a minute, Mom, what were you doing, getting up at midnight just because a little kid is crazy about hockey?
When he and the rest of the outfielders start hitting manager Benton Breeze will finally have a smile on his face and can quit beating his dog and growling at his family.