Don Baylor stormed out of the dugout, his voice booming and his arms flailing. He and his Cubs were halfway around the world, playing an exhibition game so insignificant it would not produce a box score or affect any standings.
Baylor, however, had rage in his eyes.
“I was not going to be taken advantage of just because I was in a foreign country,” he said. “I was not about to sit back and accept it.”
This was Tuesday evening during an exhibition in Japan against the Seibu Lions, a day before the Cubs were to take on the New York Mets in Major League Baseball’s 2000 opener at 4:08 a.m. (CST) Wednesday.
In the ninth inning, with the Cubs trailing 5-4 and Henry Rodriguez facing a full count, Seibu manager Osamu Higashio walked to the mound slowly. He wanted to bring left-hander Yoshihiro Doi in to finish Rodriguez’s at-bat, but Doi had just started warming up.
So Higashio told the home-plate umpire that his pitcher had to be removed from the game because of an injury. This would allow his replacement, Doi, to get all the warm-up pitches he needed.
Baylor wasn’t buying it, and instead of remaining in the dugout, he showed his own brand of diplomacy–speak loudly and carry a big stick.
“He came out of the dugout screaming,” center-fielder Damon Buford said. “It’s a spring training game but it still mattered to him.”
Cubs President Andy MacPhail, watching from a field-level box, was impressed.
“The [home-plate umpire] didn’t speak English,” he said, “but he understood Don.”
Baylor rarely has trouble getting his point across, and he will need every drop of energy in his voice as he embarks on his first season with the Cubs, who played .327 ball after June 8 last year.
MacPhail has described the roster as “fragile”–and that was before a series of injuries swept through the Cubs like a tidal wave.
Fourth outfielder Glenallen Hill, who batted .300 and hit 20 home runs in 1999, is out with a pulled left groin. Willie Greene, Baylor’s top left-handed hitter off the bench, is on the shelf with a lacerated right hand. Expected Opening Day starter Ismael Valdes will be lost for an unknown period with tendinitis in his shoulder.
Dn’t even bring up Kerry Wood. Baylor originally envisioned the 22-year-old Wood making his big-league return from reconstructive elbow surgery April 9. Now June 9 is more realistic.
Even in Japan the Cubs aren’t safe. Shortstop Ricky Gutierrez suffered a slightly strained rib cage Monday and was questionable for the opener against the Mets.
“With all the little injuries we have, I’d like for us to concentrate on the opponent,” Baylor said. “This is what we have right now and this is what we have to go to war with. We can’t really make a lot of mistakes. We just have to take advantage when other teams give us an opening. We’re going to play a lot of close ballgames and I’d like to win some of them.
“[The injuires] won’t be hanging over us. Somebody will get an opportunity who never would have if we were healthy. These guys have to look at it that way. When someone else has misfortune, you have to take advantage. If you pitch well, you stay. And if you play well, we’ll find a spot for you.”
But Baylor, preaching the gospel of a man whose autobiography is entitled “Nothing but the Truth,” will have a message for the young replacements, players such as Roosevelt Brown and Cole Liniak.
“I’d like to tell certain guys they only made the club because of injuries,” Baylor said. “Don’t expect to stay here and don’t get your nose out of joint when it’s time for guys to come off the disabled list. With the time you do spend here, learn something and savor the moment.”
Baylor clearly believes in making the most of the moment. When he became the first manager of the Colorado Rockies in 1993, he was determined not to take the predetermined path.
“The old adage is that expansion teams are supposed to lose 100 games,” he said. “I fought that like heck. I almost put on the uniform and stepped in the [batting] cage to get it done.”
Baylor did get it done–but not by much. His first Rockies team lost 95 games, just as the downtrodden Cubs did last season.
“I think he’d still [put the uniform on] if they’d let him,” said catcher Joe Girardi, who played for Baylor in Colorado.
The Cubs could use Baylor’s pop. Although they finished fifth in the National League in home runs last season, they ranked 13th (of 16) in runs. The heart of the lineup–Sammy Sosa, Mark Grace and Henry Rodriguez–drove in 319 runs, but the rest of the order is suspect.
Leadoff man Eric Young reached base more than 200 times in 119 games last year and stole 51 bases, but at 32, are his legs slowing down? Will Girardi improve his .239 average now that he’s playing full-time again?
Which Buford will emerge, the one who hit .282 in ’98, or the one who slumped to .242 in ’99? Is Shane Andrews really a .220 lifetime hitter?
The starting rotation, once considered a strength, is floating in no-man’s land.
Jon Lieber has proved reliable, and Kevin Tapani had a terrific spring, showing no effects of the back injury that ended his ’99 season on a nine-game losing streak. But hard-throwing right-hander Kyle Farnsworth is still a mystery and 27-year-old lefty Andrew Lorraine has played for five major-league teams and won a total of five games.
Then there’s the health factor: After Cubs pitchers lost 747 days to injuries last season, what can be expected in 2000?
“There are still some questions, no doubt about that,” Grace said. “But you know what? We’re determined to overcome them.”
Baylor will make sure of that, or lose his voice trying.
