‘Faymer’ mans centerfield
Raymer dreams to be ‘The Natural’
In baseball today, custom batting music for each player is a new trend. Most of the time, a player chooses some popular rock ’n roll song with a dynamic metal sound to it to get themselves pumped up for an at-bat. Or sometimes they will choose a rap song or alternative tune with a base pounding beat.
However, when it comes to getting psyched for an at-bat, LSU center fielder David Raymer had something different in mind.
Raymer steered away from the trendy contemporary songs for a classic theme from an old baseball movie classic “The Natural.”
“I’ve always loved ‘The Natural,’” Raymer said. “It’s my favorite baseball movie. It might be my favorite movie all together.”
The main theme music of the film brings to Raymer’s mind the climax of the movie, when slugger Roy Hobbs — played by Robert Redford — shatters the stadium lights of Knights Field with a towering home run blast and dramatically trots around the bases while sparks from the explosions fall on the field.
“I’ve always dreamed of winning it in the bottom of the ninth with a home run that shattered the lights,” Raymer said. “I’ve always dreamed of doing that when they’ve got the lights on at night, and just shattering it with sparks going everywhere. Every time I come out to the theme song of ‘The Natural,’ it reminds me of that. It just pumps me up.”
It can be argued whether or not “The Natural” is the best baseball movie. But it might have one of the most dramatic endings among baseball cinema, with Hobbs circling the bases.
Raymer, himself, has a flair for the dramatic ending.
While it wasn’t a home run that blasted the lights out at Fairgrounds Field in Shreveport in the Tigers’ 7-6 road win at Centenary last week, it was Raymer’s two-out, two-strike, two-run double that won the game for LSU.
He also delivered a key insurance two-run double in the Tigers’ 8-4 win over Houston on Saturday.
Raymer also has one of the more colorful nicknames among the LSU baseball team – “David Raymer, The Hall of Famer” or as coach Smoke Laval calls him, “Faymer.”
“I’ve had that nickname ever since my freshman year in high school,” Raymer said. “We had a clown on our team who made jokes about everybody’s name and made rhymes, kind of what Chris Berman does for Sportscenter. This guy did it for me. ‘David Raymer, The Hall of Famer,’ has stuck with me ever since.”
Raymer – a senior from Apex, N.C. – has gotten off to a slow start this season and is hitting .214 with seven RBIs. But his on-base percentage is .476, reflecting the nine walks and five times he’s been hit by a pitch.
Raymer, who hit .324 with four home runs, 30 RBIs and 11 stolen bases last season, said he is still trying to find his swing.
Like Raymer’s slump, Roy Hobbs went through a hitting slump like that too in “The Natural.” Every now and then, Hobbs would show signs of busting out – like the game in Chicago where he shattered the clock tower with a home run at Wrigley Field. And while Raymer is no Roy Hobbs, he has shown signs of coming out of it. Laval is confident he will come around.
“He’ll hit. I mean he’s hit his whole life,” Laval said. “He hit last year after a little slow start. He’s going through one of those slumps.”
Laval said Raymer is one of the most liked players on the whole squad.
  “He’s a very likable guy. He’s always smiling, always working,” Laval said. “Plus I think his recording on his answering machine says ‘Hello, David Raymer, Hall of Famer.’”
Graham Thoms