Just got to Yuma. Stop here for some lunch, and then about 2 1/2-3 hours in.
It feels good. (1) Don’t you want to know about my ankle? Nobody cares about my ankle anymore.
It’s good. Real good.
Coming off a good year in ’03, I really wanted to have a strong year in ’04. I got sidetracked right out of the gate and don’t think I was ever able to recover as well as I’d like to until I got down to the last three or four games.
Last year, the Cardinals beat us in the division, but we lost the wild card. That’s kind of the way I look at it.
We had our destiny in our own hands, and we lost it. We didn’t get it done at the end of the season. We know that.
I think that motivation will help us this year a lot.
I think it’s best for both parties (2) just because this year would’ve been “Is he liked? Is he not liked?” A distraction that didn’t need to be around.
Now it’s up to us to make our own identity and what we’re going to do with it.
We have a good team and we have the ability to be a great team if we achieve the things we should be able to.
Everybody’s trying to say we can kind of have a parallel year and have the same success this year that they did, but the thing is, Boston has had a great team. They’ve always just had that one team in their division that they never could beat.
If there’s anything we can learn from them, it’s just never to give up. They were down 3-0 and they came back.
They (3) were demanding in the classroom. If you didn’t get good grades, if you didn’t get your homework done, you weren’t going to play. When it came to school, they were very demanding, and I’m really grateful for that. It opened up my eyes that there’s more to life than baseball.
Getting married to Heather, that’s probably No. 1. Getting my degree and being a major leaguer are right at No. 2 and 3.
Hopefully, I’ve got many more, but all the years I’ve been playing baseball, that’s probably the most fun I ever had. (4) It was a great, great ride.
Hopefully, we’re when we’re having our 20-year reunion in 2023 at the Cubs Convention and we aren’t where we haven’t done anything since. I hope that doesn’t happen.
It’s going to be an ugly year for baseball, I know that. (5) It seems like every day, there’s more and more negative press about it.
This is my fourth spring training, and a lot of the things that have come up lately with Canseco’s book and Barry’s mistress, these are all things that happened when I was still worried about my calculus test in high school.
Most people would think of Pujols or Bagwell or Bonds, but actually it’s Jose Vizcaino. I get him out, but he’s always 1-for-3, 2-for-3, 2-for-4, always getting hits off me. They’re smart. They put him in there when I pitch.
I think if you have a good family, you live your live respectfully, I think that’s happiness.
You’re a Cubs player, and no disrespect to being a White Sox or being a Bear or if there is any more Blackhawks, but everybody knows you, everybody except White Sox fans want to see you do well, they’re always supporting you, no matter what. It’s a fun place to play. I love playing in Chicago. I’m so lucky and so grateful that I got a chance to play there and, hopefully, win a World Series.
Have fun. Enjoy the game, because it is a game.
(1): The right elbow he injured last spring training.
(2): The Cubs trading Sammy Sosa.
(3): His parents.
(4): The Cubs’ 2003 season.
(5): Because of steroid talk.
