Category: Dailies
The Catch and more
Demp and I had planned a trip after that game in Milwaukee. I was going to ride home with him and I figured he’d find me some Culver’s. We usually stop and get a butter burger. This time, he didn’t give me anything. I think he’s holding out and maybe he’ll take me to Joe’s Stone Crab — but probably not.
After the catch in Washington, he didn’t buy dinner. But he’s helped fund my appetite in the past. I’m sure I’ve already gotten my fair share of dinners. It’s almost like when I make catches like that, I’m doing him a favor. He’s done me a bunch of favors in the past. He was just excited and I was just as excited as he was to be able to make a play, which at that point in the game, was a significant play. I had looked up at the scoreboard and said, “Man, we’ve got a home run hitter up with the chance to tie the game right here,” and all of a sudden, the ball’s up in the air a couple pitches later. I was fortunate for everything to work out just perfect. The ball, the way it came down, gave me a bunch of time to get under it. It’s still not an easy play but I felt it go in my glove and I was thinking, no way that just happened. You automatically turn from excitement to “What do I have to do now?”
I wish I could’ve seen a dugout camera or the reaction of the guys in the bullpen. I’m looking for that everywhere on video. I want to see if ESPN or anybody else had that. Those are always the most fun to see how excited guys get about it. They make you feel good as a player.
I saw Prince tip his helmet on video. I went up to him the next time I got on base and said, “Hey, it’s the first time I’ve ever robbed a homer, man. I know you don’t want to hear that.” That whole rest of the day, I was in a zone and didn’t hear anything he said. He’s going to have plenty more opportunities, I’m sure. He’s a good player and good guy and plays the game the right way. He’s going to have a successful year.
Me and Demp were talking and said the only one-upper would be to do it here at Wrigley. You’d have to stick your foot in the ivy and grab onto the chain link and be able to pull yourself up. That’s next to impossible. Things would have to be just a perfect situation. Woody used to practice that out in left center field, and I would watch him and said, “Oh, that’s how you can get up there,” and you’d have to pull on that little basket and pull yourself up over the fence.
If Font had been working on his outfield play, we’d have to get him an eight-foot ladder out there to get himself up onto the fence. I know he’s going to be upset with me saying that. He always gets upset with me. But it seems like every time I give him a hard time, he steps his game up and starts playing well. That’s what I’m looking for. I’m doing this for him, just remember. I’m doing it for Mike because I want to see him do well. He’s been playing great, the team’s been playing great. Every game, we’ve been in. We’ve got losses, but every single game we’ve been in, and we’ve had an opportunity to win. Hopefully, we’re on the good side of things more times than not. We’ve got clutch players from a pitching standpoint and from a hitting standpoint who are really going to help put us over the edge in close games like that. We’ve got a long way to go.
— Reed
Gamesmanship & coming home
On Saturday, I was called on to pinch-hit in the ninth. I hadn’t played, but like I’ve mentioned before, staying sharp and approaching things the right way from an attitude standpoint is huge. It could be a situation where any one of us who isn’t playing can sit back and be upset about not playing and sit back and pout about the things they’re not doing, but if you approach things the right way and get your work in the cage and do all the things you need to do — like today we took extra hitting on the field — good things happen. They might not happen right away, but it’ll benefit not only you as a player but help the team win ballgames. It’ll get you in the lineup a lot more, and that’s what I’ve taken pride in is approach my workouts on and off the field as an everyday player and it really keeps you ready for those type of situations so when you’re standing at the plate, you’re not panicking. You’re relaxed and feel confident that you’re going to put the ball in play somewhere.
I think that was a first for me on Saturday — I’ve never been pinch-run for in my life. If you think about it, you get a guy like Joey on first base and the catcher might be a little more worried about having a runner in scoring position. Having the pitcher slide step might have caused him to leave a changeup up in the zone. When a pitcher has one more thing to worry about with the running game, that’s something that a lot of people don’t realize can have a big effect on what the hitter does at the plate.
I’ve never raced Joey. I have a pretty good feeling that he’s faster than I am. He’s probably jumped over a lot more cars than I have. I was thinking of putting something on YouTube of Reed Johnson jumping over a car and it may be a Matchbox type car or a Tonka truck. I’m sure people would get a kick out of that. That’s the extent of the cars I’ll jump over.
I think we’re excited to get home. Most of us have wives or girlfiends or somebody back in Chicago getting things set up, like the furniture situation or getting into the apartment, getting your cable set up and electricity set-up, and all that type of stuff that you have to take care of when you’re moving into your place.
It’ll definitely be nice to be home. I think you almost have an exhibition game/Spring Training kind of mentality because we haven’t been home yet. I think the atmosphere in Houston and the atmosphere here in Milwaukee, obviously being Opening Day week, you get to see a lot of enthusiasm from the fans. Like I mentioned last time, it leaks into both clubhouses and the teams look at it as a do or die situation or almost a playoff atmosphere. Once we get home and we’re able to sleep in our own beds and enjoy the same restaurants we’ve enjoyed for however many years that guys have been playing in the city of Chicago, once we get into that regular routine, it’ll be a lot easier for everybody.
We haven’t gotten to wear the pinstripes yet. That’s always a good sign. Being able to see the electricity and the way the fans appreciate the team is always exciting for everybody as well. Guys love Opening Day but you want to get on with the grind of playing every day and try to win ballgames and get in that regular routine.
— Reed
We’re not going to win 162. Maybe 161
If you had a good Spring Training, you want to continue on that roll once the season starts but you are starting all over again. Getting that first one out of the way is always the toughest — getting that first win, getting that first hit. For the power guys, getting that first home run to kind of get things rolling. It didn’t take Sori very long or Ramy very long. Hopefully, those guys get in a groove early. We’re going to need those guys to be playing well to help this team win games. D-Lee as well. You can see, even though D-Lee has one hit in the two games before tonight, he’s been swinging the bat well. He’s really close.
When you first get to Spring Training, you struggle and you’re not taking good at-bats just because you haven’t swung the bat in four months. D-Lee is swinging the bat well and just missed a ball to left to get his first home run out of the way. Once we get those guys clicking, I think we’ll be tough to stop.
It’s good to get the real thing started, and good to get all the Opening Days over with, too. You’ve got the ceremonies, and things of that nature, and it’s nice for the players and the fans as well but it’s good to get down to the grind of playing. Opening Day is a good atmosphere and it reminds you a little bit of a playoff atmosphere where the fans view it almost like a do or die situation. It leaks into both clubhouses as well. You feel the intensity on Opening Day to win a ballgame and get off to a good start.
Lou talked to us Sunday, and he was saying how he wants everybody to have good years. The veteran group that we have in this clubhouse, everybody’s smart enough to know that if our team has a good year, there’s a good chance guys will have a good year individually, offensively and defensively. I think that was the message he was trying to portray. We’re going to go through ups and downs throughout the season. Obviously, we’re not going to win 162 games this year. We could win 161. That’s probably not going to happen. In a season, we’ll go through peaks and valleys. It’s a question of whether we can control the downward slide and take care of business so we don’t get too low in those valleys and stay consistent the whole year. I think we have the right position players intact and the right pitchers intact to have a consistent year.
Font’s got three hits going into tonight. He gets upset with me sometimes when I make comments about his size. If I was 6-3, I wouldn’t be making those comments. I’m 5-10. I’m still taller than him and I’ll always be taller than him. That’s one thing I’ve got going for me. I’m sure he won’t mind if I call him out every week and he gets three hits every other day. In his situation, he’s a guy who slowed down at the end of Spring Training and wasn’t swinging the bat really well and then the season starts and your season starts all over again and you’re off to a great start. It shows how Spring Training can mean something to some people and other people struggle through it and the bell rings and they find their swing. He’s one of those guys who it looks like he’s starting to swing the bat well. Good for him.
— Reed
Goodbye Arizona, hello New York
The last two days here, you really have to struggle to bang through the long days. I think you can smell the end. You treat the New York trip almost like it’s Opening Day. I think it’s a good thing we play these exhibitions. The travel will be tough for us but we’ll probably go through worse travel trips in the middle of the year. It’ll be good to play in front of a packed house for two days. It’ll be nice to see the stadium — we’ve heard so many things about it.
Now, you see everybody dress up nice. Font got his new outfit from “Gap for Kids” and Theriot’s suit is from “Men’s Wearhouse.” When you see those things, you know it’s time to go. Guys are excited and ready to get out of here. The new luggage tags are good, Otis yelling at everybody is another good sign. Like I said before, guys are excited and they want it to count. This trip will help us regain our focus. You have those Opening Day jitters and hopefully we get them out of the way and roll into Houston and start playing good baseball.
I love watching Patton pitch. He’s 24 years old and attacking the strike zone. The only problem Lou has with guys from a pitching standpoint is when they’re not throwing strikes and that’s not what Patton is all about. He’s about pounding the strike zone. I can see why any manager or any pitching coach could fall in love with a guy like that.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he’s with us the whole year. He’s not your typical Rule 5 guy. I think he can have a big impact on our team. You listen to his attitude and talking to him, he was so excited about spring. He was talking to me about how in Spring Training he does what he has to do physically in the weight room and out on the mound to prepare himself for the season and once the bell rings, it’s time to get after it. To hear that kind of attitude from a young kid — he has a lot of confidence in his stuff and that’s what you need to pitch up here.
He’ll be a good addition if he’s on our team. I think he’s going to have a long successful career. You can just tell. It’s not just a guy’s stuff, because there are guys with great stuff, but they don’t have the right attitude. He’s got the right combination and it’s exciting to see a player like that.
— Reed
Good communication
Kosuke and I had a little miscommunication on Monday in Surprise. You always know the center fielder has priority over pretty much everybody on the field, and as far as the infielders are concerned, the shortstop has priority. As soon as you hear his voice, it’s his ball. Everybody backs off. That way he knows that, you know that.
On Monday, it was a situation for me where the ball went to right center and we both called it at the same time. I heard Kosuke in the background call it, and as the right fielder, I backed off. That’s how it went down. I guess it’s good to hash those things out before it starts counting and it counts against us in the loss column. It’s a play that could’ve cost us the game and we have to make sure we do a better job of communication the next time.
I’ve heard Lou’s comments — that I didn’t come here to share a job. In a sense, I try not to lose sight of what the real goal is at the end of the season, which is to win a World Series. At the same time, I’m a realist and I’m not one of those guys who’s going to go out and have a false sense of security about what my abilities are. I know what I can do on the baseball field and I feel like I bring a lot of things offensively to the table, whether it’s laying down a bunt or executing a hit and run, or moving a runner over by hitting the ball to the right side — just smart baseball things. We’ve got a bunch of guys on our team who play that way and are unselfish. The more guys you have like that in the lineup, the better chance you have to win.
Focusing on winning ballgames, especially when you haven’t won a World Series in more than 100 years, that’s what it’s going to come down to this year. I think Jim and Lou, they want to put their best nine guys out on the field. I’ll be the first to admit if I’m not swinging the bat well and I see my playing time go away, I’m not going to complain. I’ll just look in the mirror and try to figure things out in the cage and try to get more playing time.
I shared well as a child, but at the same time, I’ve been in this situation so many times, this is the only way I know how to handle it. I use it to drive me to win a job. If both of us are playing great, that will be the best scenario for this team. I didn’t train four, five, six hours a day in the offseason and do all my work mentally to prepare for this season to play sporadically. I’ll be ready to step in if they need me. My body is ready for it and I’m in shape physically and mentally.
I don’t want to lose sight of the ultimate goal which is to win a World Series. If that means I’m an everyday guy in center field, I’m ready for that.
— Reed
Business as usual
I’m sure the fans are just as excited to get the real thing underway as we are. It’s great that we’re swinging the bats well and putting up good numbers in Spring Training, but everybody knows that doesn’t count. We want to make sure when April rolls around and those games start counting, we’re ready.
Kosuke is back, but it doesn’t matter as far as what I do. I’m going to approach my at-bats the same, and all the work I’m doing in the cage and the weight room, I’m going to approach it the same way. I’ve always prepared myself and my body to play every day and that’s what I’m going to do. Whether I’m in a platoon situation or it’s a situation where I’m strictly the fourth outfielder or a situation where I won the job, I’m always going to prepare myself to be an everyday guy. That way, if an opportunity does come about, then you’re prepared for it. If you’re sitting back and pouting and not approaching things the right way, that’s when you have a tendency to not be prepared when that opportunity comes about.
People say, “Oh, this game is a lot of luck.” I think when preparation meets opportunity, for me, that’s what luck is. If you’re not prepared when that opportunity comes about, you’re not going to give yourself that chance to capitalize on that so-called lucky opportunity.
Nothing’s really changed for me. I’ll approach things the same way, like the things we’ve been working on down in the cage with Gerald. You try to see the ball in detail — not just look at the ball but see it in detail and really track it and follow it. That forces you to keep your head still and slows the ball down. So whether there’s 40,000 people in the stands, or 5,000 people in the stands, whether I’m the fourth outfielder or a starter, all I’m worried about is keeping my head still and seeing the baseball. That’s all that matters.
That’s how I think guys at all levels perform. They take something that they’re keying off, whether it’s in batting practice or down in the cage with Gerald, they try to take that into the game and work on something new every day and try to become a better player. That’s what you do over a whole career. It’s a game of experience. I’m definitely learning every year.
As for Fontenot, he was a little under the weather last week — there was the flu or food poisoning or whatever it was going around the clubhouse. He was pretty sensitive last week, so I need to lay off him. I see the sensitive side come through. He came in, and he was pouting. I have to give him a week off and come back with full force next week with the Mike Fontenot session.
I think the combination of him feeling under the weather and his big movie star debut in “My Boys,” I think he had a lot on his plate and he didn’t need to be reading my blog to give him one more thing to worry about. We’ll give him a rest this week. This might be worse than a rest.
— Reed
Just a few weeks to go …
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but I looked at the schedule the other day and we still have 20 games left, and you’re like, man, that’s a lot of games. I think Lou said around the 20th of this month he’ll start running his guys out there more to get back to back at-bats in different games. It’s a lot easier when you’re playing every day to be able to fine-tune your swing. If you have a couple days off, it’s tough to use your good experiences or bad experiences in the game you had before. It’s easier when you’re playing every single day to make those adjustments. Lou’s been around the game enough that he knows that. He’ll start to see more results from guys playing two, three, four days in a row, then having a day off.
We’d like to always come out of the gate, first game of Spring Training, and everybody is clicking. Guys are doing their work in the cage and preparing and trying to get better but it’s just a situation of timing now. In my case, you’re working on different mechanical things and trying to shore them up. Rhythm and timing are always the last things that come to you. Once that clicks, the game comes to you again.
As far as the NCAA tournament goes, I think I’ll have a better chance this year because I’m going to have my wife fill out a couple sheets. She’ll pick the teams because she thinks the Cardinals are cool or the Blue Devils are pretty neat. I think I’ve got five or six years running where I always get the worst sheet. That’s why I’m going to let her do it. I think I’ll have a better chance.
A week has gone by since I last blogged, and Fontenot just walked by and he’s still as small as he was when I first met him. He hasn’t grown at all. We’ll leave it at that.
— Reed
My first blog
This is my first post, and in my blog, there could be a lot of hatred toward me from my teammates. I’m going to be calling them out throughout the year, mostly Fontenot. Fontenot will probably be inserted in my blog at least once a week. Whether or not the subject is about how Aaron Miles has a lot of work to do to be as good looking as Mark DeRosa or whether it’s me giving somebody else a hard time on the team like first base coach Matt Sinatro, there will always be some joke about Mike Fontenot at the end. Every day, he does something that has to be talked about.
Instead of me picking a name for the blog, fans can send suggestions. They can base the name off the 2009 Cubs or they can come up with something to give me a hard time.
This will be fun, and I’ll try to give the fans an inside look as to what it’s like in the clubhouse. One thing I don’t do that much is smile and look like I’m having a good time on the field. I want them to see another side of the players, like when we were at the Cubs Convention and did a “For Women Only” panel. This will be a behind the scenes kind of thing. They might see me on the field and say, “Man, he looks like a real serious guy.” Off the field, guys are totally different.
Mark DeRosa told me the Mexican team called and wanted him to play for them in the World Baseball Classic. I thought he was joking, but he said Team Mexico called him. He’s always kidding around but he was serious about this.
My blog is definitely going to be better than DeRosa’s. I’m definitely going to be tougher on my teammates.
FONTENOT: DeRo’s a good guy. Reed’s an idiot.
JOHNSON: There you go. Maybe I’ll insert Font twice a week after that comment.
Reed Between the Lines 