The example of Gary Scott didn`t go unnoticed among the young players in the Cubs organization.
”I keep saying you`ve got to get off to a good start,” said shortstop Rey Sanchez, who did just that, hitting .313 his first eight games in Iowa before being called up Sunday.
Scott, of course, got off to a slow start. He hit .091 and paid the price.
”I know I`ve got to start hitting if I`m going to have any chance of staying around up here,” said Sanchez, who was promoted when backup shortstop Jose Vizcaino went on the disabled list with a bruised right thumb.
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Sanchez hit .290 at Triple-A Iowa last season. In his 1992 major-league debut Sunday at Wrigley Field, Sanchez was 0 for 3. He made his second start Monday night against Atlanta and was 0 for 2 before Shawon Dunston took over in the fifth.
Hurting, but playing: Dunston sat out Saturday and Sunday and missed the start of Monday night`s game with stiffness in his right hamstring. The hamstring has been bothering him since spring training and he had a magnetic resonance imaging examination Friday. The test failed to show any major tear, but continued cold weather in Chicago-and in Atlanta, where it was an unseasonable 55 degrees at game time-has slowed Dunston. He entered Monday night`s game as a defensive replacement in the bottom of the fifth and led off the sixth with the first hit off Tom Glavine.
Future shortstop: Vizcaino went on the disabled list just in time to be with his wife, Jessica, for the birth of their first child Monday. Gabriella Vizcaino weighed in at 7 pounds, 6 ounces.
Old friends: Pitching coach Billy Connors got a bear hug and a back slap from Deion Sanders, who made a special trip to the Cubs` dugout to see his old friend before Monday night`s game. Connors was the Yankees` pitching coach when Sanders broke into the majors in New York in 1989 and 1990. When Connors was fired by the Yankees, he said Sanders wore a black headband in his honor. Connors returned the show of respect by naming one of his quarterhorses after Sanders. ”As soon as he was born, I knew what I was going to call him,”
Connors says. ”Prime-Time Yankee.”