Todd Hundley was 10 and growing up in Palatine when he said to his father, “Dad, I want to be a catcher.”
“Are you sure?” Randy Hundley asked his son.
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Assured that he was, Randy said, “All right, the first thing you have to learn is to block the ball.”
Randy, the one-time catcher with the Cubs, took the kid in the back yard and began throwing balls in the dirt from 30 feet, half the pitching distance. In the beginning, the boy cried. His legs and arms were black and blue. But he refused to give up.
Now, his New York Mets manager, Bobby Valentine, insists Todd has prevented as many runs blocking pitches as he has driven in–despite the wild pitch that eluded him in the Cubs’ 5-4 victory Wednesday at Wrigley Field. Hundley. now 28, is among the National League’s best clutch hitters, fourth in the league in RBIs with 44, an average of one run driven in for every 4.4 at-bats.
“When you add up his slugging percentage (.588) and his on-base percentage (.422) and it’s over 1,000, you have one heck of a player,” said Valentine.
Like his father, young Hundley is full of fire and spirit.
“Right now, he’s in charge,” observed John Franco, the Mets’ distinguished and longtime late-inning reliever. “He kept his mouth shut when he first came up. Now he’s the best captain we’ve had since Keith Hernandez. All of us watch him and listen to him. He’s our leader. People talk about his home runs, but what’s really outstanding about him is his defense.”
When Hundley surfaced, many insiders insisted he wouldn’t hit. In his first three full big-league seasons, he batted .209, .228 and .237. Last year it was obvious they had underrated him. He clubbed 41 home runs, most ever by a catcher, along with 112 RBIs.
“I knew it would be only a matter of time,” he said Wednesday. “I never paid attention to what people said. You can’t let that negative stuff get in your head. It’ll eat you alive. “I’ve gone 0 for 30. I’ve been there. You can’t think about your slump. You can’t let your offense affect your defense. You can’t let that one ball in the dirt get by you.”
The Mets have been among the surprise teams in the NL. Despite the absence of pitchers Jason Isringhausen, Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson, all of whom seemed to have big promise, they have a surprisingly effective pitching staff led by Bobby Jones, who leads the league with 11 victories.
Isringhausen, Pulsipher and Wilson are out with a variety of injuries and have yet to appear this season. Veteran Pete Harnisch, also expected to carry a load, has made only one start, five innings. He has been suffering from depression and may return after the All-Star break.
Jones, who won eight games in a row, has a 2.22 earned-run average, sixth lowest in the league and has held opposing hitters to a combined .208 average. The other starters are Mark Clark, Armando Reynoso, Dave Mlicki and Rick Reed. Reynoso is 5-0 with a 2.55 ERA. Only Mlicki, a hard thrower, is under .500.
“People say, `Who are these guys?’ ” said Valentine. “But they’ve been around a while. The pitching–that’s the big difference in our club.”
The Mets were 20 games under .500 last season, only four games ahead of the last-place Phillies in the NL East. Including Wednesday’s loss to the Cubs, they are seven games above and running third behind Atlanta and Florida.
Valentine credits Hundley with a large pitching assist.
“He works closely with the pitching staff,” he said. “He is as much a part of each pitch as the pitcher throwing it. Last year his offense put him on the map, but you won’t find a better all-around catcher.”
And, so far as Hundley is concerned, there aren’t many managers better than Valentine, who is in his first full season at the Mets’ helm.
“He’s a people-type person,” Hundley explained. “He’s not a control freak. He lets us hit-and-run and steal when we want to. He’s very relaxed and lets us do our thing.”
No matter how highly Hundley thinks of Valentine, his father remains his No. 1 example.
“I always stay at home whenever we come to Chicago,” he said. “I thanked him last night before we went to bed. And I thanked him again at breakfast this morning. He taught me everything I know.”