The Arizona Diamondbacks front office deserves massive credit for finding professional rodeo participant, Mason Saunders, to add to the rotation.
Newly acquired member of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Mason Saunders, (aka Madison Bumgarner) has been secretly competing in rodeos for years now.
Imagine being richer than your wildest dreams, a World Series ring and MVP, and make a living chucking and bending an 8-ounce ball of leather.
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That in itself is the dream of kids, high school/college players, and even cube monkeys who have hung up their spikes.
Diamondbacks free agent signee MadBum does all of those things and leads a pretty incredible life. Based on reporting from The Athletic, Madison Bumgarner leads a double life as a small-time rodeo competitor, Mason Saunders.
The story is crazy and yet it’s not even surprising given what we know about Bumgarner. There’s even proof in the picture below.
If this isn’t peak MadBum, I don’t know would be.
Bumgarner and his partner allegedly won the prize of $26,560 in the competition. He’ll also make $567K per start over the next five years so he’s only doing this for the absolute thrill of competing in a rodeo.
Presumably, Arizona had to have some knowledge of Bumgarner antics before they signed off on his 5-year, $85M contract. Surely the Diamondbacks must have some sort of verbiage that prevents or limits the number of times “Mr. Saunders” can participate in rodeo events.
Posted by Rancho Rio on Wednesday, December 4, 2019
I searched high and low through every corner of the internet to try to find Bumgarner in the rodeo and was unsuccessful. Whether its advanced baseball statistics or Rodeo, context is always important and you can watch a rodeo video below.
Madison Bumgarner is the most interesting man in baseball, there isn’t really a close second place. The man can give you 7 strong innings and then moonlights as a Cowboy from an old western.
The Diamondbacks can’t be too thrilled about the second part, but Bumgarner has one of the more interesting side hobbies in all of the sports.