For 13 years, Mark Grace listened with amusement as visiting players discussed their nights on the town. Often they didn’t have to say a word for him to know batting practice had come early.
“I’ve seen a lot of bloodshot eyes,” he said.
This weekend, Grace might be the guy needing Visine. He is making his first trip to Chicago.
But it might be tough for Grace to live up to his reputation on Rush Street. The Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman has changed more than just uniforms since he was last in town, a few days after another inglorious Cubs season ended in Pittsburgh.
When Grace arrived in Chicago on Thursday night, after the Diamondbacks beat the Cincinnati Reds, he was met by his girlfriend, Tonya Avila, and their infant son, Jackson. His parents also will be in for the weekend, staying in the house Grace moved into shortly before the Cubs decided it was time to make a change.
Mention fatherhood and Grace’s face lights up.
“Awesome,” he said. “He’s 6 months old already. Had I known it was going to be this much fun, this exciting, I’d probably have tried it a long time ago.”
Grace is not quite as enthusiastic about his move to the Diamondbacks. But it’s clear he has moved a long way past the initial disappointment and bitterness that followed Cubs President Andy MacPhail’s decision not to offer him a contract.
“As it turned out, he got the players he wanted,” Grace said. “I wound up in a situation that has been good for me. It has been good for both of us, you could say.”
Arizona easily could have stuck with a platoon of Erubiel Durazo and Greg Colbrunn at first base, but owner Jerry Colangelo wanted an upgrade.
The Diamondbacks gave the 36-year-old Grace a two-year contract worth $6.3 million, including a $3 million salary this year.
Because the Cubs were coming off consecutive last-place seasons, scouts generally praised MacPhail’s decision to create a first-base opening for prospect Hee Seop Choi rather than stick with Grace.
“It’s like putting parts into an old car,” a scout for a rival National League franchise said. “At what point do you just junk the car?”
Like the family Volvo, Grace just keeps running. He started slowly but has gotten hot in time for his return to Wrigley. He has gone 22-for-66 in his last 19 games, raising his average to .274 with five homers (two in the last four games) and 20 RBIs.
Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly calls Grace “one of the most unselfish hitters” he ever has seen. He praises the fielding skills that earned Grace four Gold Gloves in five seasons in the 1990s.
But it’s his booming voice that has made the biggest impression.
“He makes his presence known in the clubhouse every day,” Brenly said. “Sometimes it’s scouting reports on a pitcher we’re going to face. Sometimes it’s a story about a hitter and how to pitch him to get him out. Most of the time it’s a bunch of bull. But you always know he’s in the room. He doesn’t sneak into the clubhouse.”
Grace played 1,910 games with the Cubs. He went to three All-Star Games and two playoff series. He hit .308 with 148 home runs and 1,004 runs batted in. He joined a team that was led by Andre Dawson and Ryne Sandberg and lasted long enough to see Sammy Sosa surpass them in star quality.
“If you ask me how I define myself as a Cub, I was a great supporting actor,” Grace said. “I was Andre and Ryno’s supporting actor. When they left, Sammy came in and took off. They were our headliners, our Robert DeNiro and Tom Hanks. I might have been the second name on the credits, but it was not going to be a very good movie without that guy too. That’s the way it was. Those guys put up Hall of Fame numbers, but I think I helped them do it.”
Because Grace plays a slugger’s position, he often has been criticized for lacking power. He never has hit more than 17 homers in a season. He hasn’t driven in 100 runs in a season since 1987, when he was in the Eastern League.
Yet Sosa’s surge in power came after Jim Riggleman moved Grace into the cleanup spot early in the 1998 season. He was in the on-deck circle awaiting any pitcher who opted to pitch around Sosa. If they put Sosa on first, he would try to drive a ball to the gap to score him.
“That was my job,” Grace said. “People who know baseball know that, yeah, I’m not going to kill you with home runs, but I can beat you with base hits and doubles. Home runs are wonderful and all that, but you can beat people by getting base hits with somebody on base too.”
It was a tribute to Grace that Sosa was walked intentionally only eight times in 1999. That total climbed to 19 a year ago when Grace’s batting average dropped from .309 to .280.
The Cubs planned on hitting Todd Hundley behind Sosa this season, but his .198 batting average has left Don Baylor searching for someone to fill that role.
Baylor praises Sosa’s increased patience for his total of 37 walks, which leads the NL, but Grace says he hasn’t noticed much of a difference in Sosa’s approach. Few people have been watching more closely.
The Diamondbacks’ clubhouse at Bank One Ballpark is outfitted like a sports bar. Every game in the major leagues is on a television somewhere, and Grace almost always gravitates to one showing the Cubs.
“Pitching,” he said, when asked about his old team’s fast start. “That’s great to see. Guys like Liebs (Jon Lieber) and Tap (Kevin Tapani) are doing great. [Jason] Bere’s doing well. [Julian] Tavarez is doing very well. Their bullpen has been pitching really, really well. . . . You show me a team that’s winning and I’ll show you a team that’s pitching well. Up until the last few days, they’ve really been pitching well.”
While Grace has made Scottsdale, Ariz., his winter home for years, he is not a big fan of the desert heat. He hasn’t put his Chicago house on the market because he plans to make it his home once he has retired as a player.
He wants to take Jackson to the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Field Museum. He wants him to learn about baseball from box seats at Wrigley Field, with Bill Murray or another of his close friends providing the commentary.
“The biggest thing I miss is the city itself,” Grace said. “I’ve been all over and Chicago is the best city in the world. I love Chicago.
“Midwest people are good people, down-to-earth people. You still have a lot of old-fashioned values in the Midwest. You can trust people. You can walk down the streets and be safe. I miss a lot of my friends, not just on the field but hundreds of friends off the field.”
If there’s an awkward moment for Grace this weekend, it will come when he crosses paths with MacPhail. Grace says he hasn’t spoken with him since last season.
He thinks MacPhail owed him a personal explanation about the decision not to bring him back.
“I would hope he was a little more open with his communication,” Grace said. “If you want to go in another direction, then tell me rather than the public. I probably would have handled it that way, but he’s the boss. He can do what he wants. It’s his team.”
Grace can put his claim on the city itself.
“You know what would be great?” Grace asked. “I want the Cubs to play well and win the Central. Wouldn’t it be unbelievable if we played them in the playoffs?
“That would happen if this was a utopian, perfect world.”
Grace vs. his replacements
With Mark Grace gone, the Cubs have used Matt Stairs, Ron Coomer and Julio Zuleta at first base. Here’s how they have performed this year at that position, compared with Grace’s numbers for Arizona:
%%
G AVG. 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO E
Grace 37 .274 7 1 5 20 15 10 2
CUBS 40 .230 5 0 5 19 17 36 3
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