Cubs second baseman Javier Baez doesn’t hold anything back in his “Body Issue” shoot for ESPN.
He bares nothing but a baseball glove, bat and his tattoos.
Baez explained the significance of the different ark work on his body. He said his mom, Nelly, used to get mad at him for getting tattoos. So for his second one, he got his mom’s name inked on his arm so then she “wouldn’t get so upset,” Baez said.
He also has a tattoo of his sister, Noley, who died in 2015 after battling spina bifida her whole life.
Baez calls Noley his biggest inspiration and told told Marly Rivera for ESPN that he still cries for her and when he goes home to Puerto Rico, he visits her grave.
“I sit there and let it all out. Sometimes I go on my own,” Baez said. “I go there, sit down and talk to her. I laugh out loud remembering everything I have gone through with her. I told her about the World Series.”
But Baez said he likes to keep his emotions on locked down and doesn’t like to show people how he truly feels.
“Because of all the things I’ve gone through, I am not that emotional,” Baez said. “When we won the World Series, my girlfriend said to me, ‘Aren’t you excited?’ I keep my emotions in balance.”
Baez was selected as one of the 23 athletes featured in this year’s “Body Issue” and he posed for one of the covers.
But one aspect that makes Baez’s shoot more unique than others is the way his pictures were taken. Photographer Dylan Coulter used an iPhone 7 Plus to capture Baez’s shots.
Coulter told USA Today that he was originally worried about using a smart phone rather than a high-caliber professional camera like he is accustomed to.
“They mentioned they wanted to shoot in on an iPhone, so I was kind of mildly terrified until I really wrapped my head around it,” Coutler told USA Today. “Because the level and caliber of photography for the Body Issue is so high, the imagery is so strong that I of course wanted to be able to deliver that same caliber of imagery.”
The “Body Issue,” featuring Baez, is scheduled to hit newsstands on July 7.
