Cubs manager Don Baylor doesn’t envision Todd Hundley playing much first base this season, as mentioned after the catcher signed as a free agent.
Just the same Hundley plans to prepare himself for any opportunity to play.
“I’ll go out in spring training, get my feet wet and bust my butt to work on [first base],” Hundley said before Friday’s Cubs Convention at the Chicago Hilton and Towers.
“But the final decision lays with Don. Any day he wants me out there is fine. My goal is to play every day.”
Hundley, who spent the last two seasons with the Dodgers, played 34 games in left field for the New York Mets, before the experiment was scrapped.
Baylor wants to avoid the problems of Hundley learning a new position once again.
“I told Todd if he wants to take groundballs, fine,” Baylor said. “But I want his mind to be clear. I don’t want his head spinning. I want him focused on catching.”
If Hundley is out of the first-base equation, that means less playing time for last year’s starting catcher, Joe Girardi.
The story is different for new acquisitions Ron Coomer, Matt Stairs and second-year player Julio Zuleta, who will battle for starts at first base. Hee Seop Choi, the first baseman of the future, probably will begin the year in the minors.
No bush leaguer: Don’t bother asking Baylor to dinner Wednesday night. He has other plans.
Baylor and his wife, Becky, are scheduled to dine with President Bush in the White House. The dinner was arranged by journalist and baseball aficionado George Will, who also extended invitations to Yankees manager Joe Torre, Orioles third baseman Cal Ripken, Athletics General Manager Billy Beane and Braves pitcher Tom Glavine. All are expected to attend with their wives.
Baylor, a native of Austin, Texas, said he’s friendly with former President George H.W. Bush, “but I don’t know Junior.”
So what will Baylor and the president discuss? Maybe Sammy Sosa. Bush, as owner of the Texas Rangers, approved the 1989 trade of Sosa to the White Sox.
Workaholic: The Cubs had to slow down Rondell White. The left-fielder had been rehabbing his shoulder and knee too strenuously the last couple of months at their spring-training facility in Arizona.
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“He’s been killing it all spring,” Baylor said. “He’s spent enough time in Mesa to run for mayor.”
White eyes staying healthy for the entire season. He hit .328 in 19 games for the Cubs after being acquired from Montreal at the end of July.
His left knee, on which he had arthroscopic surgery Oct. 20, is still not quite 100 percent. His dislocated left shoulder, an injury he suffered sliding head-first into second base Aug. 26 against the Dodgers, is as strong as ever.
According to White, he suffered injuries during the 1996, 1998 and 2000 seasons. He played relatively unscathed in 1995, 1997 and 1999. So if history means anything, White believes this could be one of those healthy and productive years.
But on Friday, White was more amazed at the convention attendance and the fans’ enthusiasm. The convention outdrew most of the Expos’ home crowds.
“They love the Cubs,” White said. “There’s a great tradition of baseball here and I get goosebumps when I think I’m a part of this now.”
What’s on tap: After undergoing serious knee surgery in September, Kevin Tapani knows he has to take it easy in spring training.
“For the next four or five weeks, the doctor said I should be careful and cautious,” he said. “He said I have to be honest with myself and back off if it gets sore.”
On Sept. 18 Dr. Richard Steadman performed surgery on Tapani to repair roughening under his right kneecap, a small cartilage tear and patellar tendinitis.
“I had the trifecta,” Tapani said. “I’m not getting any more X-rays.”
Tapani expects to be almost 100 percent by Opening Day.