Ignore that he fired eight shutout innings in his last start. Or that he has a $10.5 million contract. Or that he already has struck out the side five times during his two-month big-league career.
Mark Prior remains a pledge in the Cubs’ fraternity.
“I’m still a rookie,” he said. “I’m reminded of that every day.”
The most obvious reminder–not to mention the messiest–came Friday after he dominated the Astros in a 5-0 victory at Wrigley Field.
Prior was being interviewed on TV after the two-hit, eight-strikeout, zero-walk gem. Suddenly he looked over his shoulder and noticed a 6-foot-5-inch Texan lurking.
A few seconds later Kerry Wood stepped toward Prior and delivered a shaving cream pie to the face.
End of interview.
“We have fun with it,” Wood said of the usually good-natured hazing. “He hasn’t done anything that he shouldn’t. But if one day he can’t fit in that [clubhouse] door because his head is too big, I think the guys will be more than willing to help him work on that.”
Removing shaving cream from your nostrils isn’t what most people would consider fun, but Prior isn’t about to protest. He doesn’t want to rile up the prison guards.
“I know where my place is,” he said. “But on game day, they leave me alone.”
His next game day is Wednesday, when Prior (4-2) faces the Phillies for the first time.
That could work against Prior, who attributed some of his success against Houston to a subpar outing he had against them in June.
“I wanted to get back at them,” Prior explained. “[Pitching coach] Larry [Rothschild] told me that sometimes I wait until people start getting hits before I get a little upset and start pitching. So he wanted me to make sure I get mad . . . right from the get-go.”
Rothschild said Tuesday that he never had mentioned the Astros in his pregame work with Prior. But that hardly matters now.
“Different guys have different approaches and they have to find what works,” he said. “Is it to back off? Is it to go all out? Is it in between?”
Rothschild said he wants Prior to be “in a frame of mind to go after hitters a little quicker and get more on the attack, rather than trying to make perfect pitches.”
It’s safe to assume Prior will do everything in his power to take the right mentality to the mound. He cares deeply about his craft.
Consider this: On the morning of May 23, fewer than 12 hours after he had beaten Pittsburgh in his major-league debut, Prior jogged along the warning track and foul lines at Wrigley Field. He was alone.
“It’s an inner drive to be successful,” he said. “I feel like the harder I work, the more I put in, the better off I’ll be later in the season. I want to be the best that I can be to help this team win. If I don’t work out, it’s not so much letting me down but letting everybody else down.”
For a 1:20 p.m. game, Prior usually arrives at the park by 8:30 or 9.
“I like coming to the park,” he said, “even if I don’t do anything for an hour. I just like being here. Obviously [baseball] is the best job there is, I think. If you’re not playing it or coaching it, I don’t think there’s anything else to do.
“I’ve gone out occasionally, but especially here it’s kind of tough. I like to sleep, and I’m trying to stay focused on my job. My first priority is obviously this.”
So it figured Prior celebrated that first big-league victory in a low-key manner. He did not down free cocktails on Rush Street.
Other than autograph hounds surrounding him while he was driving on Clark Street, Prior’s night was ho-hum. He met up with friends and family members, packed a suitcase for the Cubs’ upcoming seven-game trip and went to bed before midnight.
“I was tired,” he explained.
Prior, who turns 22 in September, is the second-youngest Cub after Carlos Zambrano. But the first word most people use to describe him is “mature.”
Prior’s teammates like him because he’s quiet, respectful and doesn’t mind doing the usual rookie chores, such as bringing drinks on the team bus or squatting for the ceremonial first pitches.
“He has composure, and you see it in his pitching too,” right-hander Jason Bere said. “He’s extremely polished for not having much pro ball experience. And that carries over into how he conducts himself when he’s not pitching.
“[Rookies] need to stay in line, which he does. But you don’t want to [razz him] so much that it takes away from what he’s doing on the field. When he takes the mound we want him to be cocky and know that he’s good. You don’t want to ride a guy so hard that then he’s worried, `What will they think of this?’ He’s fine. It’s not an issue.”
When former Cubs manager Don Baylor heard a radio ad during spring training that Prior had done for an automotive dealer in Scottsdale, Ariz., Baylor brought him in front of the team to give him a hard time.
“It wasn’t like he threw a temper tantrum and [said], `How can you embarrass me in front of the entire team?'” Baylor recalled last month. “He said, `I knew I would get my razzing and I’m glad I got it over with.'”
Wood said he didn’t have to take much abuse during his rookie season. No one shoved a fake dessert in his mug after he fanned 20 Houston Astros in 1998.
“We were in a pennant race, trying to get to the postseason,” he said. “Mark’s going to be here for a while, so he can just go out and worry about pitching.”
– –
Prior game-by-game
DATE OPP. RESULT IP H ER HR BB SO PIT DEC. ERA
May 22 Pirates W, 7-4 6.0 4 2 1 2 10 103 Win 3.00
May 27 Pirates L, 3-2 6.0 3 1 0 2 7 94 ND 2.25
June 1 Astros L, 7-3 3.2 7 7 3 3 5 95 Loss 5.74
June 7 Mariners W, 2-0 7.0 4 0 0 1 11 124 Win 3.97
June 12 Astros L, 5-4 6.0 3 2 1 4 10 118 ND 3.77
June 19 Rangers L, 7-4 5.0 6 3 1 4 7 107 ND 4.01
June 24 Reds W, 6-4 6.2 4 2 0 2 5 101 ND 3.26
June 29 Sox L, 5-4 5.0 5 4 1 4 5 112 ND 4.17
July 4 Braves L, 5-1 6.2 6 2 0 0 5 101 Loss 3.98
July 14 Marlins W 10-3 6.0 5 2 1 3 5 103 Win 3.88
July 19 Astros W, 5-0 8.0 2 0 0 0 8 114 Win 3.41
Totals — — 66.0 49 25 8 25 78 1,172 4-2 3.41
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STATS & STUFF
BY THE NUMBERS
116: The Cubs’ total home runs, ranking second in the National League behind San Francisco’s 124.
413: So why are the Cubs waiting till next year? Because their 413 runs rank 13th in the league. They’re scoring just 4.2 per game.
NO NIGHT OWL
Jon Lieber is the only Cubs starter who performs better during the day. His day/night breakdown is striking, but so are those of the rest of the starters. A closer look:
Day starts
PITCHER RECORD ERA
Lieber 6-3 2.52
Matt Clement 7-5 4.09
C. Zambrano 0-1 4.41
Mark Prior 2-1 4.81
Jason Bere 0-6 5.82
Kerry Wood 2-3 6.09
TOTALS 17-19 4.33
Night starts
PITCHER RECORD ERA
Prior 2-1 1.95
Zambrano 2-1 1.99
Wood 6-2 2.43
Clement 1-2 3.25
Bere 1-3 4.72
Lieber 0-4 4.89
TOTALS 12-13 3.28
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JUST GETTING STARTED
Sammy Sosa has averaged more than 60 homers over his last four seasons. And if not for the players’ strike in 1994, he might have 10 consecutive seasons of 30 or more. His 25 blasts in 1994 came in 105 games. A year-by-year look:
YEAR HOMERS YEAR HOMERS
1993 33 1998 66
1994 25 1999 63
1995 36 2000 50
1996 40 2001 64
1997 36 2002 30*
* projected 2002 total: 50
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ON THE FARM
Topps named Double-A West Tenn’s David Kelton its Southern League Player of the Month. The infielder hit .333 and drove in 26 runs.
OUTLOOK
Vs. Philadelphia
Wednesday-Thursday
You think manager Larry Bowa is enjoying his return to Chicago? At least his Phillies avoided their sixth straight loss by rallying to beat the Cubs on Tuesday.
At St. Louis
Friday-Sunday
It’s only partly a do-or-die series for the Cubs. If they don’t win two of three, their postseason hopes are dead. Lieber faces recent Cardinals acquisition Chuck Finley in the opener, Wood takes on Jason Simontacchi on Saturday and Clement faces Matt Morris in the finale.
Vs. San Diego
Tuesday-Thursday
Only one team in the National League has a lower batting average than San Diego’s .244. It’s the one the Padres will face in this series.
— Teddy Greenstein
Inside the numbers
Hitting
Fred McGriff’s runs batted in
By driving in 19 runs in his last 17 games, McGriff has surged into the top 10 among National League RBI leaders. His 1,470 RBIs rank 42nd all time and are five shy of Hall of Famer Billy Williams’ total.
AVG. OBA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS E
.270 .361 345 44 93 17 1 21 70 49 59 1 2 6
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Corey Patterson’s batting average
A prolonged slump has lowered it from .296 on June 18 to its current .262. Patterson ripped an RBI single to center Tuesday but still has just four hits in his last 33 at-bats.
AVG. OBA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS E
.262 .304 363 45 95 16 4 8 35 18 80 15 2 1
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Pitching
Matt Clement’s strikeouts
Clement, who fanned four batters Tuesday, already has surpassed his strikeout total of 134 from a year ago. Clement’s 136 rank fourth in the league behind Curt Schilling (205), Randy Johnson (192) and A.J. Burnett (144).
W L ERA G GS SV IP H R ER HR HB BB SO
8 7 3.86 20 20 0 130.2 103 57 56 12 4 51 136
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Kerry Wood’s hit batsman
Wood leads the league with 14. It’s the highest total for a Cubs pitcher since Greg Maddux hit 14 in 1992. The team’s single-season mark of 22 was set by Nixey Callahan in 1900.
W L ERA G GS SV IP H R ER HR HB BB SO
8 5 4.08 20 20 0 128.0 96 61 58 9 14 67 112
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