It's cliche to say a baseball player is in the "best shape of his life" as he enters Spring Training, but Roger Bernadina of the Nationals is, in fact, in the best shape of his life, by far. That's a picture of Bernadina from last August, when he was finishing up his 2010 season.
↵What does Bernadina look like now? Washington Post photographer Jonathan Newton snapped a picture of him, and let's just say that Bernadina's biceps have seemingly doubled in size. Click the link to be amazed. Holy moly. Adam Kilgore of the Post said he "looked more like a strong safety than a left fielder." Yeah, pretty much.
↵What spurred this change? Bernadina said he sometimes worked out twice a day this summer in order to prevent the September slide he suffered last year.
↵↵↵"In August, I was fine," Bernadina said. "In September, I ran out of gas a little bit. It's that mental grind. For next time, I'll know it. It is definitely a long season. But it's no excuse. What happened, I can only learn from it."
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Judging from the way he looks, he should be just fine in September. If not? Clearly, there's a larger problem at play.
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