Even before the question was asked, Brad Hawpe gave the answer.
“Yes, we are going to miss Matt Holliday,” he said with a smile.
To hear the Rockies tell it, Holliday, traded to Oakland, will be missed as much for his hitting tips as his hitting. He has a keen understanding of mechanics, breaking down swings in parlance that his teammates can understand.
No one leaned harder on Holliday than Troy Tulowitzki.
“Hitting was his thing. He would go across the locker room and say, ‘The last few days when you weren’t as good, you were doing this. Maybe you should try this,’ ” Tulowitzki said. “He was my go-to guy. Now I don’t have him anymore.”
Tulowitzki remains in contact with Holliday. He plans to ask the left fielder to keep tabs on his swing.
“He’s going to be fine,” Holliday said. “He knows I am only a phone call away.”
Holliday is still working with a former Long Beach State shortstop this winter, it’s just Bobby Crosby, not Tulowitzki. He invited Crosby to hit with Mark McGwire, who has become a hitting mentor to Holliday. Holliday admires McGwire’s technical grasp of hitting — “get short to the ball and long after hitting it” he repeats — and has been texting and working with him for nearly three years.
Tulowitzki admitted that Holliday’s departure puts a greater onus on him to be a leader. He plans to follow in Holliday’s footsteps.
“A good team is when your best players are hard workers, and everybody follows them,” Tulowitzki said. “Losing Matt, our best player and probably our hardest worker, I want to make sure to be that guy where guys can look to me and say I am good for a reason because I work hard, like a lot of guys did with Matt. We need to carry that on.”
Hawkins for hope.
Like many ballplayers, Astros reliever LaTroy Hawkins, a former Rockie, had a keen interest in history last week. He spent Tuesday in Washington to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama, the country’s first African-American president.
“It was unbelievable,” said Hawkins. “I had a blast.”
Unforgettable moment.
One of President George W. Bush’s most memorable moments in office came at the 2001 World Series, when he threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium less than two months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Former Rockie Todd Greene, now a quality-control coach with Tampa Bay, caught the strike.
“It was very intense and loud in the stadium. It was my most proud moment, not just as a ballplayer, but as an American,” Greene said.
Footnotes.
The Diamondbacks fired the man who served as their team mascot, D. Baxter the Bobcat, after a DUI arrest came to light. He was pulled over in a Toyota Scion bearing the Diamondbacks’ logo, and had his costume in the car. . . .
The Giants are unlikely to get outfielder Manny Ramirez for this reason: If it comes down to a two-year, $50 million deal with the Dodgers or San Francisco, he will choose L.A. Why? He’s immensely popular in Hollywood, and Dodger Stadium is a better place to hit.
