A-Rod's Major League Baseball career may be accelerating towards a fiery finish, but his cousin's career is on an upward trajectory. Not the cousin who apparently supplied him with PEDS.
He'll never be MLB's home run king, but his cousin recently became the high school baseball prince and captured the family throne from A-Rod.
Over the weekend, A-Rod's cousin Joe Dunand is a 6-2 senior shortstop and third baseman(the same positions A-Rod played) who once played a young A-Rod in a Dick's Sporting Goods ad was jacking dynamite his stick. In five games at the Horizon National Tournament, Dunand went 10-for-12 at the plate, bashed nine dingers. In case you're wondering this wasn't a home run derby. Afer his explosion Dunand was given the MVP trophy before the championship game was even played. Dunand also set a national prep record.
If confirmed by the National Federation of State High School Associations, Dunand would eclipse the national prep record for home runs in a row. It's a somewhat obscure stat, but right now any good news could help that family. Dunand is slated to attend NC State in the fall, but is only rated 160th among prep prospects, which places him a few notches below high school A-Rod, the No. 1 overall pick of the 1993 Draft.
Dunand's Gulliver Prep coach Javier Rodriguez (no relation) doesn't believe anything Dunand does moving forward can top this accomplishment.
Via Yahoo Sports:
It’s the most unbelievable thing. I’ve never seen anything like that. It looked like a video game at one point. It didn’t matter what they were trying to throw at him, everything was gone. I don’t know how to explain it. His last eight swings were home runs. Everyone was in awe.
I hope he continues what he was doing out here, but nothing is going to top this. Not even if he is a major-league 15-year All-Star, he won’t be able to top this.
It'll be interesting to see just how much of a role A-Rod has had or will have in advancing his cousin's career ambitions given his murky past as a PED abuser.
