The cowboy boots are hideous, going nicely though with the picture of the dead deer he carries in his wallet, and why Alyssa Milano ever gave the big Oklahoma oaf a second look, I'll never know.
"Elk," Brad Penny corrected. "It's a dead elk, and I'm not carrying a picture of it, but I'm still eating it."
He also denies ever dating Milano, although she confirmed they did spend time together, and apparently he didn't think it was too memorable.
But that's the thing about Penny, no one seems to have a real good handle on the guy, who he is and what he does besides taking a baseball in hand and throwing it by most hitters.
Penny has won 32 games the last two years for the Dodgers, now add on the first game this season, and he has represented the team in the last two All-Star games.
A few years back, he won Games 1 and 5 for Florida, beating Joe Torre's Yankees in the World Series, and yet around here he's probably best remembered for losing his temper, and getting thrown out of games. But when's the last time anything like that has happened?
Hard to call him a well-kept secret because he does blot out the sun when he stands on the mound, but the more you spend time around the big oaf, you begin to understand the devil that resides within the Dodgers' clubhouse.
A few weeks back in Vero Beach, Penny took a seat behind Tom Lasorda in the dugout and rode him like one of the four racehorses he owns. He told Lasorda the umpire was making faces at him, didn't respect him, was purposely shading calls to go against Lasorda, and did everything he could to get Lasorda angry and thrown out of the game.
This is the same guy who invited a visitor to peek into a cooler, a snake ready to pop up and take a good four years off his life. He does that to Jeff Kent, and Kent has to retire then because he's too old to play. But of course, Penny went nowhere near Kent with the snake. He's big, and might look like an oaf, but he's not stupid.
In fact, catcher Russell Martin says Penny's pretty smart, and it shows in the way he has become a pitcher rather than just a thrower.
"Now when he needs that little extra, he still has it," Martin said.
Penny has become one of the game's better pitchers, hanging around now into the sixth and seventh innings, and with Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito available, that's a formula for success.
