For Love, Not the Game Golfer Picks Ballplayer Husband Over L.P.G.A. Tour By KAREN CROUSE Published: September 27, 2013 OAKLAND, Calif. — Amanda Blumenherst emerged from the customs zone at San Francisco International Airport last week after a work trip to France with two suitcases, a carry-on and her golf clubs. After four years as a golfing vagabond, she was steering her luggage cart toward the van that would take her to her next stop: domesticity. Waiting for her was her husband of nine months, Oakland Athletics first baseman Nate Freiman, who surprised her at the airport thanks to a scheduling change that, for once, favored the couple. Between Blumenherst’s 16 starts on the L.P.G.A. Tour this year and Freiman’s first major league season, the couple have been like two planes passing in the night sky. She and Freiman have spent less than a month in the same city since January, Blumenherst estimated. It was no way for newlyweds to live, so Blumenherst, 26 and in the prime of her career, decided to step away from the L.P.G.A. Tour at the end of the year to more fully inhabit Freiman’s world. It may seem like an old-fashioned compromise, the kind that women might have been expected to make a generation ago, but the couple decided it was what they both wanted. She said Freiman, her college sweetheart at Duke, never would have suggested she give up her dream of playing professional golf. “He was very supportive of my career, and was constantly telling me how proud of me he is,” she said. But the constant travel was getting to be too much. “I felt like I was just missing out on so much, being away,” she said. “When I was at a tournament, my heart wasn’t 100 percent in it.” Still, the decision came as a bit of a surprise. Blumenherst, whose sponsors include Nike, was generally regarded as the one with the more promising career. While she recorded six top-10 finishes in her first three years on the L.P.G.A. Tour, Freiman, an eighth-round draft pick of the San Diego Padres in 2009, was playing in the Padres’ farm system. “Leading up to this year, my career was front and center,” Blumenherst said. “This year, the roles have been reversed.” Freiman played reasonably well this year for the A’s, who have one of the best won-loss records in the majors, but it was still unclear whether he would make the postseason roster. Freiman, though, has made far more money than his wife, and that probably factored into their decision. Her total earnings this year were about $49,000. Her husband made $490,000. “The last couple of years, it’s been tough on both of us,” Freiman said. “It was her idea to step away from golf and see how she likes it and I was right on board with it.” Blumenherst is uncertain whether she will return to professional golf. She said she planned to “kind of see how it goes a little bit.” “I’m not going to make any sweeping declarations of retiring or playing a full schedule,” she said. Blumenherst has not lost her love of golf, but she hated missing out on family milestones. Freiman had two hits and drove in a run in his major league debut in April. Blumenherst missed it — she was competing in California. Freiman hit his first home run soon after. Blumenherst missed it again — she was in Hawaii for a tournament. “It was very difficult not to be part of those experiences,” she said. The couple would like to have children soon. In the meantime, she will continue to play in pro-ams, corporate outings and charity events to maintain a connection to the game that has been the axis of her life since she was 6. For the foreseeable future, her husband’s career will be her new axis. She said she would not be surprised if other L.P.G.A. players reached her age and opted to leave the tour, which has two top players who are mothers — and two others who are teenagers. “Girls on the tour are going to keep getting younger,” Blumenherst said. “I just don’t think you’re going to have many families on tour.” When Blumenherst announced that she was stepping away from competitive golf, the reaction was mixed. On the tour, people were “overwhelmingly supportive,” she said. But some outside the L.P.G.A. circle wondered why she would volunteer for what she enthusiastically described as “the cheering committee.” Blumenherst had been awake for more than 24 hours by the time she slipped into her seat in the Athletics’ family section for a recent game against the Angels. Dressed in jeans and a replica of her husband’s No. 7 jersey, she exchanged greetings with other wives and girlfriends. She took out her smartphone and showed them the mountain and lake views in Evian-les-Bains, France, where she finished 74th in a recent tournament. The travel looks glamorous, but it posed the largest challenge to the relationship. “Not just living out of a suitcase, but living in airports,” she said. Of the 28 events on the L.P.G.A. schedule, 13 are in the continental United States. If there had been more events in the United States, she said, she might have played longer. The next five L.P.G.A. tour stops are in China, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan — Asia now hosts the most lucrative tournaments, and it’s where Blumenherst makes most of her money. In previous years, when Freiman played in the minors, his season was over in time for him to accompany Blumenherst to Asia. To reduce expenses, he would even caddy for her. She might have competed there this year if not for Freiman’s postseason opportunity in Oakland. For now, the couple are betting on Freiman, who has been platooning at first base. “Nate offered our club a very specific skill that we needed, the ability to hit left-handed pitching, and he did an outstanding job in that capacity this year,” Oakland General Manager Billy Beane said. The day after her return, Blumenherst had lunch with Freiman at a sushi restaurant in Alameda before she dropped him off at the ballpark. It has become a ritual when she is in town: a pregame meal that is as close as the couple get to a date night. Blumenherst did most of the talking, and Freiman listened attentively. They are looking forward to getting their schedules in sync. Even when they were together during the past year, they did not always get to see much of each other. Freiman tended to stay up late after night games, and Blumenherst rose early for training. “He’s on a rock-star schedule,” she said, “and I’m on an old people’s schedule.” Asked if he had any misgivings about Blumenherst sacrificing her career for his, Freiman said: “I’m not thinking of it like one career or the other is the center of our relationship. I’m looking at it like we’ll be spending some more time together, and I’m looking forward to that.” Blumenherst said she was excited to settle into her role as a baseball player’s wife and maybe help Freiman with his golf slice. She knows her old identity will be hard to shed. “It’s a huge transition,” she said. “I think that’s one of the most difficult parts of this, is you stop being what most people define you as — an amateur or college or L.P.G.A. golfer.”
Posted on: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 05:28:06 +0000
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