Giants hitting coach plans trip to outer space in 2014

[KamaAina]

I mean, sure, the bats have been a bit quiet of late (one local writer said of the Lads' recent road trip, "They celebrated every run like the birth of a baby"), but outer space? Wouldn't a paper bag or a Groucho nose have done?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Giants-hitting-coach-plans-trip-to-outer-space-f?urn=mlb-wp5438

The Houston Astros. The Rocket. Bill "Spaceman" Lee. Blue Moon Odom.

Hensley "Bam-Bam" Meulens will join all of the above when it comes to baseball players associated with the outer limits.

Only the San Francisco Giants hitting coach will have a much stronger claim on space than just a nickname. That's because Meulens is actually going to be blasted into orbit during a space expedition that's being planned by his native Curacao.

It sounds like a joke, but it's 100 percent true. As MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch notes in a recent profile of Meulens, the outgoing former player has been selected as an inaugural "astronaut" for "Space Expedition Curacao," a commercial space tourism program the Caribbean nation is trying to launch by 2014.

[Forkboy]

1. He should save money and just have Barry Bonds throw him into orbit.