All-Star game latest honor for Jaxx's Woerman
Accolades are nothing new for Diamond Jaxx pitcher Joe Woerman. Only now, the Southern League All-Star feels like he's earned them.
"I was pretty surprised to find out," Woerman said of being an All-Star. "Once the shock goes away, you show up and all the festivities and banquets and cocktail parties kind of blow you away. I was very fortunate to be part of that."
Woerman proved he belonged in Monday's All-Star game, earning the 7-4 win for the North after pitching a scoreless fourth inning at Pearl, Miss. He allowed one hit and struck out one.
But, that is not the most interesting part of the story...This is:
It's a contrast to the way Woerman felt in 2006, when he was invited to be on the provisional roster for the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic.
Since the Dutch are more known for clogs than cleats, Major League Baseball did some stretching when building the roster, simply looking for players who had any sort of Dutch descent. That included Woerman, who was among 50 players invited to try out for the team.
Certainly it was an honor. But there's a catch - last time Woerman checked with his family, none of them were Dutch.
"As far as I know, I'm 99 percent certain I'm German," Woerman said. "But they had to fill out rosters, and MLB kept calling me. They said, 'Your last name, we really think it's Dutch. We're doing all kinds of background checks.
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