Ervin Santana’s Greatest Hits – Motivation, Dodgeball, and El Combo

Jun 16, 2013; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Ervin Santana (54) against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

These days, athletes are on Twitter all the time. Really, it’s the best vehicle for them. They have downtime between games and, for a starting pitcher, Ervin Santana has most of the week free after workouts and games.

He’s taken to it right away, becoming one of the favorite Royals to follow on Twitter, combining motivational quotes with a bit of silliness. Royals fans on Twitter have taken to calling him “Erv” after getting a dose of his personality through his account (of course, his strong 2013 helps that movement).

He’s only had just over 200 messages, but many of them have been gems.

Just as the Royals limped into the All-Star break, Santana was offering words of encouragement:

Simple. Of course, I’m not sure even Santana saw the Royals going on a 17-4 tear right out of the gate. He cooked up an idea of celebrating pitching at the All-Star Break. Hitters get the home run derby, so pitchers get dodgeball.

The folks at the MLB Fan Cave liked the idea, so they worked on promoting the idea early.

Now, I can’t imagine the dodgeball idea will ever happen. How many teams would want their all-star caliber pitchers to go into an exhibition where they’re throwing in an unstructured competition, but maybe he’ll get his wish. After the break, the Royals were considering whether or not to trade Santana. The season he was having was worthy of a nice return, but Santana dealt with the rumors with grace. Or maybe he was just using his dodgeball skills.

The mantra he’s repeated all through July and August is the hashtag #SecondHalfIsOurs and he shouted it (digitally) once the trade deadline passed.

He’s taken to tossing out inspiring quotes.

And he’s also quoted classic literature.

And famous generals.

But on Thursday, Santana was masterful. It started with this photo of he, Alcides Escobar, and Salvador Perez in matching outfits. They looked like a Latin pop trio, and Santana seemingly gave them a name – “El Combo”.

After the Royals swept the Twins, El Combo reunited for the flight to Toronto.

I’d imagine some pretty entertaining songs from that group.

Speaking of pop stars…

So here’s to Santana. May the hits keep coming and the celebratory meals look as good as this one.

I wonder what a Twitter conversation between Erv and Royals beat writer Bob Dutton would look like.