
SPORTS
Chris Flexen Sr. relishes his role as father of a Major
League Baseball player.
A career plumber in the Bay Area of California, he
and his wife, Desiree, moved to Port St. Lucie following
their only child.
He also relishes his role in outdoor operations at the PGA
Club in Port St. Lucie, where he is the first person a golfer sees
when pulling up to the club and the last one seen as a golfer
pulls away from one of the club’s three championship courses.
The Flexens, dad and son, often play the courses at the
PGA Club. Each owns a house in PGA Village, three minutes
by golf cart from one another. The dad shoots in the mid-80s
and the son in the mid-70s with a drive that usually goes 300
yards or more.
Every day it seems more PGA Club members are learning
that the younger Flexen is now a mainstay in the starting
rotation for the Seattle Mariners.
PSL FAN CLUB
“He’s got a big support group here in Port St. Lucie,” said
the dad of the son who plays for a team that is the farthest
away of any in the major leagues. “One of our members is
from Boston and said he’s been a diehard Red Sox fan for 74
years, but he told me he rooted against his own team when
Chris pitched at Fenway Park,” Flexen Sr. said.
That April 24 Saturday afternoon game at fabled Fenway
is the best proof that 2021 could be the year that Flexen Jr.,
who turns 27 July 1, puts it all together after frustrating,
injury-plagued, up-and-down years with the New York Mets
organization.
At Fenway, Flexen faced a lineup that at the time was
the best hitting team in baseball. Flexen used all four of the
pitches he commands to hold the Red Sox scoreless for six
innings before yielding a run in the seventh as the Mariners
glided to an 8-2 victory.
Fans will have to wait until the end of the season in October
to see if the right-hander has a sustained rebound in 2021.
As May comes to a close, he leads the Seattle Mariners in
wins after taking the mound nine times this season.
ROUGH ROAD TRAVELED
For Flexen, it has not been an easy or straight road to being
a regular on a major league pitching rotation.
There have been three knee surgeries, an arm operation >>
Flexen exhorts from the mound during
a game in 2020 with the Doosan Bears
of the Korean Baseball Organization. He
calls his year in South Korea pivotal to his
development as a pitcher.
Port St. Lucie Magazine DOOSAN BEARS
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