The St. Louis Cardinals’ Lars Nootbaar got a Mother’s Day surprise during an interview on ESPN before Sunday night’s game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
‘She’s everything to me, really,’ Nootbaar said about his mom while being interviewed by ESPN’s Eduardo Pérez. ‘She’s my rock, she’s my everything. She’s my best friend and …’
Nootbaar paused when he realized that his mother, Kumi Enokida Nootbaar, had surprised him on live television.
‘Is this live right now?’ he asked.
Kumi Enokida Nootbaar thanked Lars for the Mother’s Day flowers as the video chat continued.
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Lars understandably got emotional during the duration of the interview.
‘He cries a lot,’ Kumi Enokida Nootbaar said. ‘He’s a crier.’
Nootbaar went 3 for 6 and scored three runs as the Cardinals won the game, 9-1, to complete the series sweep.
Who is Lars Nootbaar?
Selected by the Cardinals in the eighth round of the 2018 draft out of USC, Nootbaar ― who is from El Segundo, California ― is in his third season in the big leagues.
The 25-year-old is the starting right fielder for the Cardinals and is hitting .302 this season with three home runs and 13 runs batted in.
In March, Nootbaar became the first foreign-born player to play for Japan in the World Baseball Classic. Nootbaar became a cult hero in Japan as the country won its third World Baseball Classic.
“Without making any judgment on talent,’’ Nootbaar said, “baseball means the most in Japan. In the Tokyo Dome, you have 50,000 people chanting the fight song of every player in the lineup, knowing every single word.
“Baseball is completely embedded in the country.’’
Nootbaar’s mother was born and raised in Japan, and he honored her heritage by playing for the country in the WBC.
