You wouldn’t know it to look at Michael Barrett, who appears as if he just stepped out of Gentleman’s Quarterly. And you wouldn’t know it to talk to him, soft-spoken as your average English professor. Not so deep down, however, lurks the heart of a fighter.
Barrett’s older brother, Dave, recalls sliding into third during a game for Atlanta’s Pace Academy, where the Barrett brothers led their team to multiple state championships.
“The third basemen fell on me and gave just a little push with his cleat as he was getting up,” Dave Barrett says.
“It was enough to send Michael running out of the dugout and to tackle the guy. The reaction you would expect from a big brother would be, `Way to go, Michael.’ But I was like, `What are you doing?'”
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Big brother chuckles.
“One thing about [him], he is so passionate about what he does and his intensity sometimes takes over,” David says.
It didn’t take long for Kerry Wood to see that in the Cubs new catcher.
“I’ve had to tell him, `Don’t throw the ball back to me harder than I throw it to you,'” Wood says with a laugh. “He has a lot of enthusiasm.
“One thing I notice is when I need a big pitch, after the sign he’ll pound his fist and go, `Come on’ and get all fired up. It makes me feel good as a pitcher, like he’s on the same page with me.”
Barrett, who only came to his position following his first year in professional baseball after spending his formative years as a shortstop and pitcher, admits he still is learning.
“Until you put on the gear, you can’t possibly understand what a catcher goes through,” he says. “But I feel I’ve advanced pretty far considering I’ve only been catching for eight years.”
Considering he has been a Cub for only four months after being traded by Oakland in December for a player to be named–just one day after the A’s acquired him from Montreal–he has made an impression. Going into the series against the New York Mets Friday, Barrett is hitting .333 with four home runs and 12 RBIs.
“How can you not like him?” Cubs general manager Jim Hendry says. “He’s a first-round draft pick, a great athlete. A couple years ago, you couldn’t get him. The Expos didn’t pay him $2.6 million [in 2003] for nothing.”
Barrett enjoyed one of his most productive seasons at the plate in 2002, batting .263 with 49 RBIs in 117 games, and he was at his defensive best last year even though he missed much of the season due to injuries.
Hendry says the Cubs are fortunate to get a player who was “on the come” two years ago but whom they were able to sign to a one-year deal for $1.55 million.
“Some guys are great defensive catchers, some are great offensively and some, like [the Mets’ Mike] Piazza are a combination of both,” Hendry says. “We think Michael can be both.”
For now, the question seems to be Barrett’s defense with a staff of power pitchers who don’t always make things easy.
“We do have a few guys on our staff who throw that slider that bites down and in for a lefty,” Wood says. “You don’t want a catcher putting down a sign for the slider and wondering `Where’s this thing going to go?’ Some people talk about his blocking the ball, but he already has saved us so many times, I can’t even count.”
Barrett says he was “shocked” when the Expos told him they were going to make him a catcher after his first season of professional ball.
“Although I had the tools and it made perfect sense, I was caught off-guard,” he says.
Everything from hitting–“It’s just such a different feeling being tired all the time, feeling awful in the legs”–to throwing the ball back to the pitcher, was an adjustment, Barrett says.
“I’d take eight warm-up throws an inning as a shortstop and I might get a groundball once or twice,” he says. “When I was a shortstop, I wanted to fire the ball across the infield to show my arm off. Behind the plate, I had the same mentality, but I’m throwing the ball 120 times a game. I was ignorant of everything that went into it.
Barrett, a cousin of former Cubs and White Sox player Scott Fletcher, says he took advantage of coaches he had who were former catchers themselves such as Jeff Torborg, Luis Pujols and Gary Carter.
“I took a little bit from every one of them,” he says. “I don’t believe there’s any one way to do anything in this world.”
That also applies to a general attitude that has made Barrett the consummate coach’s son.
“I remember I jumped on him once for hitting too many home runs,” says David Barrett Sr., who coached both sons in youth football. “I tried to make him a line-drive hitter. Now they’re trying to get him to hit more home runs. That’s my fault.”
Michael Barrett says his goals were fixed firmly on a college scholarship and adds even after the Expos made him the 28th player chosen in the ’93 draft, he seriously considered going to Clemson, where he had committed.
“It was difficult for me to pass up college because it was a goal I was shooting for,” Barrett says. “My brother played baseball at Wake Forest and he was the guy I was following. That was the goal, the mentality.
“At that time, I didn’t have much information about the draft and what being a first-rounder entailed. I eventually realized it was something really special that I couldn’t pass up.”
Dave Barrett’s baseball career ended after a knee injury two years into college. But Dave, who like his father is in the insurance business, says he could not be happier following his brother’s career.
“It’s just as exciting for me to see him out there as it is for him to be out there,” Dave says. “His first big league at-bat exemplifies what’s deep inside him.”
Michael Barrett’s first at-bat came against Curt Schilling.
“I struck out on three straight pitches,” Barrett recalls. “And I was not even upset. I was just so thrilled to be there. Then I looked up in the stands and saw my brother and he had the exact same expression, how cool this was. I went 0-for-3 and struck out twice and later, we shared tears of joy.”
Big brother remembers the same thing and a little bit more.
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“Schilling went nine innings and in the ninth, he threw three pitches to Michael, who looked like he missed all three. His last pitch of the game was 98 m.p.h. Afterward, Michael says to my wife and me, `Wow, did you guys see that last at-bat? I got a piece of that ball. I was on that guy.’
“This is Michael’s passion, it’s what he wants to do and that day, he achieved it. It’s a great thing for someone to have a dream, to reach for it and to make it. Fifteen years ago, we were watching Schilling on TV.”
Perhaps in another 15 years, Dave Barrett will be watching his brother fulfill another dream.
“I really feel honored to have had the opportunity to play for some great managers and I’m playing for a great one now,” Barrett says. “The way I look at it, the way baseball is evolving and how those managers have survived and managed or coached could help me become a pretty good manager some day.”
Barrett says he already has had an offer to manage once his playing career is over, although he declines to reveal who made the offer.
“I told the guy the only way to do this is to start at the bottom, in rookie ball, and to understand how it all works,” he says.
“As time goes on, I’ll be able to digest some of the things I’ve learned and put those to use. The seeds were planted a long time ago by guys like Frank [Robinson] and Felipe [Alou] and Jeff [Torborg] and they’ve started to grow, things I never understood until lately because of what I’ve experienced. I’ll be able to appreciate them even more and hopefully learn how to cultivate that in other young players the way it has been cultivated in me.”
Good beginning
Michael Barrett is off to a hot start for the Cubs. A look at some of his key numbers:
.690: Slugging percentage. His career best for a full season was .436 in 1999 with the Montreal Expos.
10.5: Barrett’s home runs per at-bat this season. He had averaged one every 47 at-bats prior to this season.
.389: His average at home. His career average at home is .255 and he’s a career .262 hitter at Wrigley Field.
.350: His average with runners in scoring position is well above his career .277 average.
.400: His average in day games vs. a career mark of .264.
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UP NEXT Friday vs. Mets, 2:20 p.m., WGN-Ch. 9