The ugly number on the Coors Field scoreboard next to his name taunts Carlos Gonzalez: .189. That’s not CarGo. It’s an imposter wearing his Rockies uniform. But for a ballplayer struggling to hit his weight, Gonzalez wears a big, easy smile.
“If I’m not hitting as good as I want to right now, I know there will be two or three weeks where I will hit .400,” Gonzalez confidently declared Tuesday. “It’s a whole different thing than a year ago. If I go 0-for-4 this year, it is not the same as 0-for-4 last year.”
On April 22 a year ago, the No. 5 on Gonzalez’s back covered his physical pain and hid a sense of dread. Why? On April 22 a year ago, his season was already over. It was a lost cause. Less than a month into the 2014 campaign, CarGo could not shake the nagging feeling his season was doomed to failure.
“On opening day, I was already messed up,” Gonzalez admitted to me during a conversation we had last month in Arizona, while CarGo reviewed the gory details of his forgettable, injury-plagued 2014 season, which ended after 70 games with a .238 batting average and 11 home runs.
“I knew last year I was in trouble from Day One. In spring training, I was already thinking, ‘Wow, I don’t even know how I’m going play even a 100 games this season It’s going to be a long year.’ When you’re thinking like that in spring training, you know you’re in trouble.”
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Gonzalez, who has won the National League batting title, twice been named to the All-Star Game and earned three Gold Gloves in six prior seasons with the Rockies, is being paid $16 million this year. For a franchise that doesn’t have money to burn, CarGo must be CarGo if Colorado is to have any chance to compete in the National League West.
San Diego beat the Rockies 7-6 to extend Colorado’s losing streak to five games. And Gonzalez failed to snap out of an early-season slump that has seen him strike out nine times while producing only five extra-base hits. Too many of his plate appearances have ended in a four-hop grounder to the second baseman.
It’s not time to panic, unlike last April, when Gonzalez had already privately surrendered. The obituary on his 2014 season said the official cause of its demise was a left knee that required surgery and a tumor on an index finger that often turned his sweet swing into pure agony.
But here’s what you should know: Gonzalez blames himself for not being well prepared last season to play at an all-star level.
“I want to kick butt, especially after a down year. It was full of injuries, but it was still a down year, and I put myself in that situation by not working as hard as I’m working now,” Gonzalez said.
“I made a mistake by resting my knee after the 2013 season, and I gained weight. When I did start training again, my knee didn’t respond, and I said, ‘Holy (expletive), this is worse than it was ever was.’ I was hurt from Day One of spring training. You try to convince yourself, ‘I can play hurt.’ But I was in trouble from the start. I had a lot of doubts in my mind. And my mind was being affected by my body.”
Gonzalez shed 20 pounds before this season on doctor’s orders. He is 29 years old. For CarGo, life can no longer be an all-you-can-eat buffet. I told him my theory: A man does not truly become an adult until he is forced to diet.
“I had never done a diet before. I used to eat Cheetos or whatever was in front of me,” said Gonzalez, laughing from deep in his now-trim belly. “The hardest part in a man’s life is when you can’t eat whatever you want. When a doctor has to tell you what to eat, that’s when you finally realize: ‘Aw, man. I’m getting old.’ I’m not worried about playing at 35 right now. I’m thinking about being my best at 29. Let’s take it year by year.”
Yes, the Rockies have pitching woes. But, if any hope for the summer is to live past spring, here’s the first thing Colorado must fix: Get CarGo to be CarGo again.
“I’m looking forward to playing the game, and talking about my struggles or hot streaks, not about how my body feels,” Gonzalez said. “My body feels good, which is good. Now that I’m healthy, I will have a lot of opportunity to go 0-for-4 and then have a hot streak. I want to kick butt.”
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or
