Go Cubs!
‘Shaved’ Jake Arrieta (of the current Chicago Cubs and in the World Series) makes the ESPN body issue cover.
[from ESPN]
It's a good thing Jake Arrieta shaved his back because he's showing that off - and a lot more - as one of several cover athletes for ESPN the Magazine's body issue. "I'm extremely hairy," the Cubs ace says in the annual photo spread featuring athletes in the nude. "It pretty much connects from the top of my head to my toes with a nice upper body sweater/track jacket type of thing. I'm shaved right now. The chest is good, the back is pretty solidly shaven." For the shoot, Arrieta and photographer Marcus Eriksson trekked out to the desert near Scottsdale, Arizona, where a production team made a pitcher's mound. The cover image captured Arrieta completing his pitching motion while wearing just his glove.
As usual, picking a cover athlete was a tough decision, said Alison Overholt, editor-in-chief of ESPN the Magazine and espnW. "Jake Arietta’s cover selection was immediate and unanimous, however," she said via email. "Our team was stunned by his photographs. The extension you can see in his pitching form, the starkness of the image against a desert pitching mound environment. Combine that with the ridiculous streak he’s been on this season, and having him on a cover was just no question.”
The magazine will send out multiple covers to subscribers nationwide, and editors chose Arrieta as one of the cover athletes. Nineteen athletes participated in the pictorial. Sky star Elena Delle Donne and Christen Press, who plays for the Red Stars and U.S. national soccer team, also were picked for covers. The covers will be distributed randomly and not by region, so Chicago-area subscribers won't necessarily get a Chicago athlete.
On Friday, ESPN revealed to the Tribune that Press was chosen as the national cover athlete for the copy that hits newsstands July 8. ESPN will post the issue online Wednesday, and subscribers will start getting copies in the mail as soon as Tuesday.
Delle Donne told the magazine she was initially "terrified" to do the shoot, in which athletes pose strategically. "I was nervous and self-conscious at first, but got comfortable really, really quickly. We were laughing and having a good time. Yes, it took some convincing. … But in the end, I really believe in athlete bodies being a powerful image in our culture and showing that there's not just one type of female body. … We're all powerful in our own way."
Press told the magazine: "I've always wanted a more perfect body. But if you think about it, the bodies that I see every day are my teammates', and they are some of the most amazing bodies in the world - so that gives you a skewed perspective." She also said, "Every single thing about my body looks like soccer. … I have butt muscles, thigh muscles, and then my upper body is super skinny - except for in my shoulders …"
[from ESPN]
It's a good thing Jake Arrieta shaved his back because he's showing that off - and a lot more - as one of several cover athletes for ESPN the Magazine's body issue. "I'm extremely hairy," the Cubs ace says in the annual photo spread featuring athletes in the nude. "It pretty much connects from the top of my head to my toes with a nice upper body sweater/track jacket type of thing. I'm shaved right now. The chest is good, the back is pretty solidly shaven." For the shoot, Arrieta and photographer Marcus Eriksson trekked out to the desert near Scottsdale, Arizona, where a production team made a pitcher's mound. The cover image captured Arrieta completing his pitching motion while wearing just his glove.
As usual, picking a cover athlete was a tough decision, said Alison Overholt, editor-in-chief of ESPN the Magazine and espnW. "Jake Arietta’s cover selection was immediate and unanimous, however," she said via email. "Our team was stunned by his photographs. The extension you can see in his pitching form, the starkness of the image against a desert pitching mound environment. Combine that with the ridiculous streak he’s been on this season, and having him on a cover was just no question.”
The magazine will send out multiple covers to subscribers nationwide, and editors chose Arrieta as one of the cover athletes. Nineteen athletes participated in the pictorial. Sky star Elena Delle Donne and Christen Press, who plays for the Red Stars and U.S. national soccer team, also were picked for covers. The covers will be distributed randomly and not by region, so Chicago-area subscribers won't necessarily get a Chicago athlete.
On Friday, ESPN revealed to the Tribune that Press was chosen as the national cover athlete for the copy that hits newsstands July 8. ESPN will post the issue online Wednesday, and subscribers will start getting copies in the mail as soon as Tuesday.
Delle Donne told the magazine she was initially "terrified" to do the shoot, in which athletes pose strategically. "I was nervous and self-conscious at first, but got comfortable really, really quickly. We were laughing and having a good time. Yes, it took some convincing. … But in the end, I really believe in athlete bodies being a powerful image in our culture and showing that there's not just one type of female body. … We're all powerful in our own way."
Press told the magazine: "I've always wanted a more perfect body. But if you think about it, the bodies that I see every day are my teammates', and they are some of the most amazing bodies in the world - so that gives you a skewed perspective." She also said, "Every single thing about my body looks like soccer. … I have butt muscles, thigh muscles, and then my upper body is super skinny - except for in my shoulders …"