By Staff
Staff Reports
Former Washington Pam Pack standout and current Pirates starting center fielder Trent Whitehead received the Jungle Player of the Year award during the ECU baseball team’s last regular season homestand of the year over the past weekend.
The award is voted on by “Jungle” regulars at the end of every baseball season. Volunteers hand out slips to willing individuals in the “Jungle” before a select home game and charge them $1 a piece to vote for the award. The money goes towards a Jungle Player of the Year plaque.
The “Jungle” at ECU’s Clark-LeClair stadium encompasses a gated parking lot behind the baseball field’s left-center field wall. Fans can buy parking passes for the gated lot, but anyone with general admission tickets can watch the game from the “Jungle.”
The award presentation started at the end of the 2001 season when several “Jungle” regulars, including Washington native Mac “Bear” Hodges approached former ECU skipper Keith LeClair about handing out an award from the “Jungle” faithful. According to Hodges, LeClair said the award would be fine, but that the “Jungle” could only give one if they agreed to do it every season from then on.
The first Jungle Player of the Year was former ECU great and current Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Chad Tracy.