Sam Fuld - Personal Life

Personal Life

Fuld is a Jewish baseball player in the major leagues. He was born into a household with a Jewish father and Catholic mother, and has said that he was "kind of raised celebrating both".

Sam was ten pounds at birth, so big he was nicknamed "Sumo Sam". He is the son of Kenneth Fuld, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Professor of Psychology at the University of New Hampshire, and Amanda Merrill, a New Hampshire State Senator. He is also a second cousin of former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld.

He got his start playing baseball hitting plastic wiffle balls pitched by his grandmother when he was three years old. Instead of carrying around the typical teddy bear or worn-down baby blanket when he was young, he carried a book of baseball stats (The Complete Baseball Handbook) with him all the time by the age of five, like a security blanket. "He was only 5 or 6 and he was already computing batting averages and ERAs", his father said. "He'd sit in the bathtub, and I'd say 'If a guy goes 17-for-37, what's his batting average?' What struck me is that he'd perform these operations in very creative ways–not just that he got the right answer, but his methodology, adding in a factor and then dividing by 10, etc. I'd watch him and say 'wow,' just like I said 'wow' when he used to hit."

Fuld admits his height is 5' 8" to 5' 9", but "claims the right to round up". Shorter than most major leaguers, he chokes up three inches on the bat, and says: "When I realized I was going to be limited physically, I looked for guys in the big leagues who were little. I'd buy baseball cards and find anyone under 5–10 who played in the outfield, and say, 'That's my guy; there's hope.'" While he is listed at 180 pounds, a reporter observed: "if Fuld weighs 180, it would have to be carrying all of his bats, plus the baseball donut. Despite his size, by the time he was 12 years old, Fuld was competing in a league of 14- to 16-year-olds.

In June 2009, Fuld married his high school sweetheart, Sarah (Kolodner). He had met her while they were fellow students at Phillips Exeter Academy. She is an athlete as well, and won two national lacrosse championships playing for Princeton University. They have a son, Charlie, and a daughter, Jane.