Jeromy Burnitz was close to signing with Arizona last December when the rug was pulled out from under him.
Now he’s convinced that being dumped on by the Diamondbacks may turn out to be the best thing that has happened to him. He is blending in seamlessly at Cubs camp as a carefree, self-effacing slugger replacing a distant, larger-than-life presence.
Burnitz was on the verge of signing a two-year deal with the Diamondbacks before negotiations abruptly collapsed.
No sooner had his agent landed at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport to complete the contract when a message from the D’backs on the agent’s voice mail informed him the offer was off the table.
The Diamondbacks were busy working on a three-way deal with the Yankees and Dodgers that would send Randy Johnson to New York and bring Shawn Green to Arizona, making the signing of Burnitz unnecessary.
He went from being wanted to being discarded, all in one strange day.
“It was a funny deal,” Burnitz said. “They were talking legit–`We want you for two years, blah, blah, blah.’ And then, toward the end, they were calling me and wanting me to sign for literally next to nothing.
“It was a funny way of handling it. Two months earlier it was, `Oh, we love you.’ And then it’s, `Here, we’ll give you this.'”
As it turned out, complications required the Diamondbacks to acquire Green in a separate deal with the Dodgers.
“His agent is kind of running the program over there, so he was in,” Burnitz said, referring to Arizona general partner Jeff Moorad, a former agent whose clients included Green.
Burnitz wound up waiting until Feb. 2 to sign a one-year, $4 million deal with the Cubs, who hope he can fill Sammy Sosa’s shoes offensively while upgrading the defense in right field.
Now that he’s happily wedded to the Cubs, Burnitz can laugh at the way it turned out.
“This is all just business, but it’s pretty funny,” he said. “This is the best. I’ve said it 100 times this spring: This is my best opportunity ever, and I’m excited about it.”
Burnitz turns 36 next month and may be the antithesis of Sosa in terms of personality and style. He already has made a fashion statement, pulling his socks up to his knees in the style of former Rockies teammate Todd Helton and wearing No. 3 in honor of Babe Ruth.
But don’t expect Burnitz to point to the bleachers before hitting a home run.
“I won’t be able to do that,” he said. “That would be great, but I only see one guy in my era who can maybe do that. Barry [Bonds] could probably point and pull it off, maybe a little bit of the time.
“I’m not trying to be anybody. I’m just playing around with the uniform.”
Burnitz is playing for his fifth team in five seasons and his sixth team overall. Although he hopes to make a lasting impression in Chicago, he’s not thinking about a long-term relationship just yet. Once a veteran reaches the journeyman level, he learns to adapt to new towns and new teams with little apprehension.
“It’s not difficult at all because the game doesn’t change,” Burnitz said. “I’ve played with a lot of guys. Being around a lot of years, the comfort factor has always been easy. I don’t have any problem with that.”
Manager Dusty Baker said Burnitz seems like he has been a Cub for a long time, not merely a few weeks. He’s already made himself at home in the Cubs’ clubhouse, sans boom box.
“He’s fitting in fine,” Baker said. “This guy knows how to play, and he loves to play. He’s a pretty cool dude, really.”
Replacing Sosa isn’t the easiest task, but Burnitz doesn’t look at it as anything new. He has replaced some starting outfielder in every town in which he has played. Being Jeromy Burnitz is the only thing Burnitz is worried about.
“There’s tons of pressure no matter who you’re following,” he said. “We all deal with it in our own way and put it on ourselves.
“I’m not saying there’s not a lot of pressure on me, but it’s not from [replacing Sosa]. I’ve got enough of my own to worry about.”
Sosa vs. Burnitz
Sammy Sosa left big shoes to fill on the Cubs, but his replacment in right field, Jeromy Burnitz, has put up some big numbers in his career. A comparison, dating to 1997, when Burnitz became an everyday player.
%%
SOSA BURNITZ
YEAR AVG HR RBI SO AVG HR RBI SO
1997 .251 36 119 174 .281 27 85 111
1998 .308 66 158 171 .263 38 125 158
1999 .288 63 141 171 .270 33 103 124
2000 .320 50 138 168 .232 31 98 121
2001 .328 64 160 153 .251 34 100 150
2002 .288 49 108 144 .215 19 54 135
2003 .279 40 103 143 .239 31 77 112
2004 .253 35 80 133 .283 37 110 124
TOTALS .290 403 1,007 1,257 .255 250 752 1,035
%%
%%
%%
All of Sosa’s stats came with Cubs. Burnitz was with Milwaukee (1997-2001), N.Y. Mets (2002-03), L.A. Dodgers (2003) and Colorado (2004).
