Hundley’s Hitting Woes Mystify Cubs

Winning is generally contagious--hitters feeding off hitters, pitchers off pitchers. Former Dodger catcher Todd Hundley, however, has been immune to whatever mysterious bug has bit the Chicago Cubs as they continue to lead the National League Central. The Cubs put Hundley on the disabled list Tuesday. He has a strained back and bat, and is basically suffering from mental exhaustion and frustration in the attempt to end a seasonlong slump. Batting coach Jeff Pentland has even called former Dodger batting coach Rick Down, now with the Boston Red Sox, for clues to the Hundley riddle.

“He thinks he has been letting the team down, and that’s killing him inside,” teammate and friend Matt Stairs said. “He said he’d be the lamb to be slaughtered.”

Hundley signed a four-year, $23.5-million contract with the Cubs as a free agent, joining the team for which his father, Randy, caught. Maybe you can’t go home again. In 156 at-bats, Hundley is hitting .179 with four homers and 19 runs batted in. He had only four hits in his last 45 at bats before Tuesday and had thrown out only six of 39 base stealers. Manager Don Baylor, hurting for left-handed hitters with third baseman Bill Mueller also on the disabled list and Stairs nursing a strained rib cage, wasn’t overly sympathetic when asked if Hundley would benefit from the rest.

“I don’t know, everybody’s different,” Baylor said. “We all just can’t get away from things when we’re struggling. He’s been frustrated. I don’t know if it’s from his lack of hitting, the pressures of playing at home. I’ve talked to him, had other players and coaches talk to him, and I really can’t find anything that makes sense. I wish I could simplify it, but I don’t understand it myself.”

As the media tuned up the homer meters in anticipation of the head-to-head meeting between Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire in St. Louis this weekend, San Francisco Giant Manager Dusty Baker sat in the visitor’s clubhouse in San Diego and said he was more interested in getting into Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa’s head.

Baker, who said he was already finding it difficult to prioritize his time between his usual work load and a stream of reporters asking about Bonds, knows it is likely to get worse and hoped to quiz La Russa on how he handled the media crush during McGwire’s record-breaking season in 1998.

“I was there for Hank Aaron,” Baker said, referring to 1974, when Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s career record for homers, “but that was different. I was a player, not a manager, and there weren’t 182 newspapers and magazines. There wasn’t CNN, ESPN and Fox [affiliates from all areas of the globe]. That’s the truth. I don’t want to rush anyone, but I’ve got to find time to do my work.”

It’s Bonds, Bonds and more Bonds, almost as if the government was saying, “Buy Bonds.” Or as Arizona Diamondback hitting coach Dwayne Murphy said, “everything is Bonds” to the detriment of Diamondback left fielder Luis Gonzalez, who is second in the league in hitting (.356), first in hits (100), second in RBIs (74), and second to Bonds in homers (32).

“You watch TV and you don’t hear about Gonzo’s home runs,” Murphy said. “They talk about Bonds and the possibility of breaking Mark McGwire’s record, but Gonzo is just as capable. I think Gonzo is going to push Bonds all year.”

In the all-star voting it’s also all Bonds, the leader among National League outfielders. Gonzalez is fifth, trailing even Ken Griffey Jr., who only recently began playing regularly.

“I can only control what I do on the field,” said Gonzalez, clearly doing an all-star job of that.

While the Cincinnati Reds were welcoming Griffey, Barry Larkin and Aaron Boone off the disabled list, coach Tim Foli replaced them in the trainer’s room. Foli, the only coach Manager Bob Boone was allowed to hire, needed stitches after a full-fledged fight Monday with fellow coach Ron Oester, who suffered a bite on his leg. Boone has been looking for a little fight but didn’t expect to get it from his coaches. With the Reds on pace to challenge the club record of 101 losses, Boone also had a team meeting Monday of which he said, “If the players expect [to be paid] like professionals, they better start playing like professionals.”