In 1997, I broke camp with the Cubs as an extra outfielder. It was a time when we had an incredible crop of young outfield depth. After one day in spring training when we were playing the Rockies, I sat in the dugout late in the game and just burst out laughing. Upon being asked what was so funny. I replied that I don’t know what the Cubs front office will do, everyone one of us who is competing for these final outfield slots is on fire!
That day, I hit for the cycle (never did that again), but between Ozzie Timmons (now a hitting coach with Rays), Brant Brown (now a hitting coach with the Dodgers), Pedro Valdes, Brooks Kieschnick and Robin Jennings, all of us were playing well. And everyone who played in the Rockies game lit it up.
For those of you who remember 1997, you will then be able to fast forward to the big league season and realize that we proceeded to lose the first 14 games of the season. That is right, we started off 0 and 14. Sure, looking back we faced a Hall of Fame (literally) rotation of the Braves twice (Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz). We also faced an equally incredible group in the Marlins (Kevin Brown, Alex Fernandez, Al Leiter, Livan Hernandez). Most games were close, all were losses. It got so bad at one point that Kevin Orie and pitcher Ramon Tatis, got into a fight over a seat on the bus and as Brian McRae and Mark Grace advised (and I paraphrase here), “Don’t break it up, if they want to kill each other over a seat, let them.”
My new colleague at NBC, David Kaplan, was a younger host at WGN at the time for which after we lost the first six games, declared that he would sleep in the TV truck at McDonald’s until we won. Well, do the math, that was 8 more losses. Would have made a great reality show if that happened in 2018.
Speaking of math, we finished the season 68-94. Even with a 14-loss mulligan, we would have still been 12 games under .500. Ozzie Timmons was traded before the season, and through the struggles of Brown and Kieschnick and others (Brown faced the Marlins and the Braves pitching – ouch!), I ended up becoming the starting left-fielder (McRae was also traded for Lance “One-Dog” Johnson who took over CF - sigh).
I could tell our manager, Jim Riggleman, at the time felt a little guilty about my not getting a shot to play centerfield after that trade. It would have been a good time as any. So once in a while, he would come out to the outfield before batting practice and tell me that one day, I would be a starting centerfielder, somewhere. That really helped. And what he predicted, really happened.
When I was traded in 1998 to the Phillies for Mickey Morandini, life went on for me in Philadelphia. It was easy to see that this was a great opportunity for me to be a starter. Looking back, the Cubs gave me the opportunity all players are looking for early in their career. To be a starter. But it was hard to leave the only professional place I had known.
MLB
In 2018, life had certainly gone on since that 1997 team. Now the Cubs are embracing the power of expectation. When you look at every major league roster from the worst team to the best, it is full of incredible talent and comparable achievement. Yet when an entire organization can go from lovable losers to expected winners, it shifts everything, even how you see a 3-4 record in April. Yes, there have been brilliant tactical moves by Epstein and company, a plan that worked to near perfection, but it is also a shift in culture, one that now can speak as champions as a truth not an aspiration.
So from a former first-rounder (talking about me) who had the fortune of enjoying a long professional baseball career, who has been on his fair share of bad teams, these are times for fans to relax, not out of complacency, but out of confidence. If that doesn’t help, just know that Dave is no longer sleeping in a TV truck, being rescued by one win. He can now sleep in a luxury hotel near where McDonald’s used to be.
I can safely say that 3-4 was not the fast start most fans were expecting for the 2018 season. Especially playing a team in the Marlins that is in rebuild mode. But this is baseball, ultimately won on the field, the part we all love and depend on. But now, we look upon this time with perspective. Knowing there was a championship to reward all of the patience, even the 0-14 season. Although, as a player, I only had so much of a window to play the game at this level, I can share a voice of calm to know that the 2018 team is really good. So just relax, enjoy and remember.