It’s going to be really, really tough for him to make the club as a non-roster outfielder, but he is a good guy who seems to have a firm grasp of things. He is hitting .615 with a triple and two homers, the triple coming in his only at-bat today. We talked with him for a few minutes after the game, just before he got on the bus. This guy turned down football scholarships to Georgia, Florida State and Notre Dame to pursue baseball. He is now 32, and he has a decent amount of big league service time — two years, 146 days, spread over parts of six seasons with Atlanta, Detroit, Tampa Bay and Washington. But he had a real shot last spring to make it with the Nats, then he suffered a severe thumb injury in the fourth game of the spring and wound up playing only 54 games, all in the minors. He credits hitting coach Mike Easler, his manager several years ago in the Dominican Winter League, with helping him find his stroke this spring.
“I’m an older guy now, and I think I appreciate the game a little more,” said Lombard, 32. “I want to play long enough for my kids to be able to see me play. (The outfield situation) is just the way it is. It’s fun to see these young guys coming up. … (But) I can still do a lot of the things I did when I was younger, and I think I’m a better player and a smarter player now.”
As for choosing baseball over football all those years ago, when the Braves drafted him out of the Lovett School in Atlanta back in 1994, Lombard is philosophical now.
“You never know how (football) would have worked out,” he said. “But I’m very content with where I am. because I have a wife and two beautiful kids.”