Oakland A's 2016 Player Profile: Eric Sogard

Baseball season is inching closer, but it's not here yet. Time to fill the ... well, time, with more player profiles to get us psyched for the season!

Eric Sogard, the 29-year-old, 5'10" infielder from Phoenix, Arizona, is easily one of the more recognizable characters on the current A's squad. Mainly, because of his specs.

He wears them because they're the best option, his glasses told us in their blog post a couple years back. Lasik surgery or contacts just won't cut it for Sogard. Plus, the glasses are pretty snazzy and have earned him countless nicknames (which he enjoys), his own "Nerd Power" T-shirt giveaway night and Rally Specs. His glasses may also like to take a good chunk of the credit for Sogard's "Face of MLB" run in 2014, considering how close the two are. (not sorry)

Sogard isn't just about the wicked frames (but that's a big part). Sogard attended Arizona State University with a small baseball scholarship, but a bigger academic one. During his career as a Sun Devil (forks up) Sogard was a two-time All-American and posted the 15th-highest career batting average in school history at .371. He majored in Kinesiology.

His biggest splurge when he signed his first bigger-bucks contract was a beagle puppy he and his girlfriend (now wife), Kaycee, bought at the mall for $1700.

Sogard is of Czech descent, though was born in Arizona. The Czech Baseball Federation was reportedly in contact with Sogard to nab the bespectacled infielder for the World Baseball Classic in 2017.

Also, if you don't remember from a few lines up, Sogard created a blog. For his glasses.

His wife, Kaycee Sogard, runs a personal blog, which she says is a personal space to share everything that inspires her and general musings of her life. She puts a lot of work into the blog and lovingly tends to it whenever an idea strikes (which is often). She also hates pants.

As well as blogs and dogs, the couple married in 2011 and currently have two kids, Saydee and Knix.

Sogard played high school ball for Thunderbird High School in Phoenix, which sounds a lot more like a place where you'd go to learn how to be a superhero than anything else. Could be some truth in the matter.

When he was growing up, Sogard's father was a stockbroker. He brought the Sogard kids up with the right ideas about saving and investing, which Eric still holds onto today. He uses his #Nerdpower to help people out with tips on saving money.

And just to reiterate ... Sogard created a blog for his glasses. Thanks for listening.