Matt Carpenter texts with his college coach, talks on the phone with him, too — heck, in the offseason, they even live in the same Fort Worth neighborhood. All of this makes it the more meaningful that Carpenter sent him a handwritten letter, each sentence nourished with gratitude.
Jim Schlossnagle was 36 at the time, just four years older than Carp is now. It was 2007 and Schlossnagle was in his fourth season coaching the Horned Frogs of Texas Christian University. Carpenter, a junior on the team, was — and this is the one of the worst things you can be in sports — just a guy.