DEER CREEK ALUMNUS NAMED American League ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Photography by Sarah Phipps/Oklahoman Archives and Mike Stone/AP Photo

We’ve all been there. We have a plumbing issue in our house, so we call the local plumber.

But per the usual, you never truly know who is going to walk through those doors to fix your plumbing issues. It could be a graduate from the local high school, or the American League Rookie of the Year. For customers of Cyrus Wright Plumbing in Yukon, Okla., it could be both. 

Michael Fulmer, the 2016 American League Rookie of the Year and graduate of Deer Creek High School, has been digging ditches and working on sewer lines during his off season in the backyards of the Oklahoma City area. Your local plumber could also be the former first-round draft pick, with a 3.06 ERA and 1.12 WHIP over. 159 innings for the Tigers.

Fulmer started working with Cyrus Wright Plumbing shortly after the 2015 season ended, making this his second off season working as a plumber. 

“He’s gone unrecognized,” said Larry Wright, owner of Cyrus Wright Plumbing, in an interview with Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press.

So how did the Rookie of the Year start working as a plumber? Fulmer started working with his good friend’s uncle, Larry Wright, after a phone call about an upcoming plumbing job Wright needed help with.

“He called me, and I said ‘All right, we’ll see how it goes from here,’” said Fulmer in an interview with the Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press.

In the same interview, Fulmer said plumbing is a different type of workout, but it helps before starting his off-season workout.

“It took him a little while for him to know what everything was called when I asked for something,” said Wright in the interview. “I don’t cut him any slack. He digs ditches and gets dirty and does whatever needs to be done.”   

Fulmer’s MLB career is off to a homerun start, but even with a 2016 rookie contract of $507,000, he doesn’t plan to stop plumbing anytime soon.

This article was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its club