Eisenreich Gets Warm Welcome
PHILADELPHIA — He’s 49 now, but Jim Eisenreich looks like he could pick up a bat and spray a hit somewhere to the outfield.
He sure did a lot of that during his career, particularly during the Phillies’ last run to the World Series in 1993. Although that team didn’t win it all, it remains beloved for all the “personalities” and Eisenreich was one of that team’s most beloved members.
A career .290 hitter during 15 years spent in the majors, Eisenreich batted .316 in ‘93 then .361 the next year. He was one of the few athletes to play in Philadelphia who was never booed and always received a robust cheer whenever his name was announced.
He got another big hand yesterday — this one, a standing ovation — upon being introduced to throw out the first pitch before Game Two of the National League Championship Series at Citizens Bank Park.
“I don’t know why,” said Eisenreich, who resides with his wife and four children in Kansas City. “I guess, talking to (Phillies hitting coach) Milt Thompson, who was part of that ‘93 team, we were kind of considered the guys that were a little bit sane and everybody else was kind of wacko. At same time, those wacko guys, they were my best friends those years and the ones I still see are still the same guys.”
Playing with such noted “wackos” as Danny Jackson, Lenny Dykstra and John Kruk, Eisenreich said he felt like he belonged, even though he battled Tourette Syndrome, an inherited disorder characterized by multiple physical tics and vocal tics.
Eisenreich took three years off in the middle of his career to receive treatment for the disorder. In 1996, he former the Jim Eisenreich Foundation for Children with Tourette Syndrome.
“I’m going to be 50 years old and I feel like I’m in better shape now than when I was 20,” he said. “If that means (the disorder) is under control, then it is. If that can help kids wondering if they will feel better, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Thank you. Just … thank you.
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