Kyler Bryant — the other KB — won’t be four months old for another week. So he didn’t have much response to his pops returning to the Cubs’ lineup Monday, much less the home run driven into the wind and into the Wrigley Field bleachers in the seventh inning.
Even though he got a heads up just before nap time.
“My wife reminded me that I told him,” said Kris Bryant, who in recent games has begun to quiet early-season panic and hand-wringing from fans and some corners of the media over a slow opening week at the plate.
“When I hit it I didn’t really remember that [promise],” Bryant said of the pregame baby talk. “I don’t think I’ve ever told anybody that, ‘I’m going to hit you a homer,’ and I actually do. It’s kind of cool. I’ll be able to tell him that when he’s a little older.”
It was an important home run, a solo shot that gave Alec Mills and the Cubs a 2-0 lead in an eventual victory by that score over the Royals — sending them to an 8-2 start in this 60-game, pandemic season.
Click to download the MyTeams App for the latest Cubs news and analysis.
“He doesn’t remember anything now, just about when to get fed, when he’s going to sleep and when it’s bath time,” the first-time dad said.
MLB
Much like last year, by the way, Bryant shrugged off early-season concerns about his slow start, calling it “just a matter of time” before he starts hitting again like a three-time All-Star and former MVP.
“I just fall back on what I’ve done in the game so far and my experience,” said Bryant, who after a slow start in 2019 finished with 31 home runs and a .903 OPS.
These days he has even more to fall back on, if only in a newfound personal peace of mind and hearth these last four months.
If not a little extra source of KB-to-KB power between naps and diaper changes.
“It’s the first time,” Bryant said of Monday’s homer promise.
“I’ll probably do it tomorrow, too.”