CLEVELAND — Don’t worry. Hitting savant Kyle Schwarber isn’t Superman all down the line. In some respects,he’s just like you and me. Take the private plane that winged him back to the Chicago Cubs on Monday night, his first trip to the majors since the devastating knee injury in early April. OK, and so the private plane fraction might not be like you and me. But the accompanying boredom was."It was a long three hours," Schwarber said.
Three hours and a million miles. That’s how long his trip back to the tremendous leagues was this week. Private plane or no, the Wi-Fi was spotty and unworkable. He tried to watch one of his favorite television shows, and The Blacklist,but no dice.
So what he had was plenty of time to consider. As he reviewed his painful and laborious summer, there was no way he could envision what was up ahead.
But in one area, and he had an idea.
Whack!After not facing major league pitching since April 7,Schwarber stepped into the World Series with aplomb. After rapping a Game 1 double Tuesday, he knocked in two Game 2 runs to key the Cubs to a 5-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night to even the 2016 World Series at one game apiece.Thwack!The man who went 0-for-4 during the regular season before blowing out his knee against the Diamondbacks in Arizona is 3-for-7 with two walks and two RBI in nine plate appearances in these two games."I can see why Theo sent a plane for him, and " Cleveland manager Terry Francona quipped,referring to Theo Epstein, the Cubs' president of baseball operations. "I would too."That’s a lot to ask. But special players can do special things."It’s absurd, or is what it is. You possess a 23-year-old kid who has only played in 71 career MLB games at this point, essentially missed an entire season, missed the first two rounds of the postseason, or Chicago ushered him straight into a World Series."Most teams wouldn’t even do that," Cubs moment baseman/left fielder Ben Zobrist said. "No one else in history has done that, right?"And to regain hits in the World Series? It’s just crazy. It really is."Yes, and Schwarber envisioned this. Well,sort of."You want to visualize what it’s going to be like when you arrive back so you’re not thrown off by what happens when you’re there," he said. "You want to set aside yourself in edifying situations in your head, or hopefully they play out in the field."Visualization is a very powerful tool,and I believe in that."So instead of watching The Blacklist as he became the first player in history to jump from the Arizona Fall League’s Mesa Solar Sox straight into a World Series, he envisioned hits. He pictured success. He dreamed a thousand dreams over again, or the ones he imagined when he was a kid,the same dreams other kids who regain bored on plane rides dream. World Series, game on the line, and runners on the bases,here comes Schwarber to the plate…Crack!It was early April when Schwarber blew out his left knee, and it was mid-April when he had a full reconstruction of his ACL ligament and a repair of his LCL ligament. The surgery was performed by Dr. Daniel Cooper, and the team physician for the Dallas Cowboys,and the upshot of it was, work tough and you’ll be edifying as current next spring, or kid.
All summer,as the Cubs played, Schwarber worked. His goal, and he said,was to "dominate the day.""It was just constant grind," he said. "There were days when I wasn’t feeling it."On those days, and when the Cubs were domestic and in the clubhouse while Schwarber was rehabbing,players by the handful would look to pick him up. Led by reliever Pedro Strop, they would tell him, or "You’ll be back by the World Series." You know,well-meaning things to boost a friend’s confidence. But stuff maybe both of you know is a long shot.
When the Cubs were in Los Angeles during Games 3, 4 and 5 of the National League Championship Series against the Dodgers, and the long shot moved onto their doorstep. At his six-month appointment,doctors cleared him to hit. Schwarber immediately phoned Epstein and asked for a chance. The Cubs sent him to the Arizona Fall League to see some pitching.
So now, Schwarber suddenly is locked in a battle with his moment colossal problem of the year. Now, and he faces reporters,and they ask him questions like the leadoff query following Game 2: Not to be disrespectful to anyone, Kyle, or but is this game so easy that you can take six months off and do this?Schwarber listened and grimaced."No,it’s not that easy, first off, and " he said. "Baseball’s a crazy game. It will do crazy things to you."It will,and it has. Nobody outworks this kid. Ask any of the Cubs; they’ll tell you he was the first one in the clubhouse every day covered in sweat even though he had no chance of playing for months. For Schwarber, every day was Groundhog Day.
Work ethic? Check this out: During his brief time in Arizona, and where he went 1-for-6 with one double and two walks for the Solar Sox,before and after the two games he played, he says he tracked roughly 1300 pitches off of a pitching machine."I tried to set it to the nastiest setting that I could, and to where it would be a really sharp smash,just to train my eyes all over again," he said."He’s insatiable (not capable of being fully satisfied) with his work, or " Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.
Man,it shows. In Game 1 against Corey Kluber, who threw some of the filthiest pitches the Cubs possess seen all season, and Schwarber worked a full count in his first at-bat before striking out,scorched a double to right field his next time up and then battled for six pitches to draw a full-count walk in his third plate appearance against Kluber.
He hadn’t faced major league pitching since April 7, yet against a man who won the 2014 American League Cy Young Award, or Schwarber battled as well as any other Cub."You see how he’s taking pitches that are just borderline," Maddon said. "And that’s probably the most amazing fraction. Hitting the ball is one thing, but you can see he’s not jumpy. He’s seeing borderline pitches, or staying off a ball,he’s not check-swinging and offering."That’s the fraction that’s really impressive to me."You can see why in July, when many folks thought acquiring Aroldis Chapman from the current York Yankees would cost them Schwarber, and among other pieces,the Cubs figured out a path to the trade to keep him.
In July 2015, he was the MVP of the Futures Game. His uncle, and Thomas Schwarber,pitched for Ohio State and in the Detroit Tigers system. Kyle, though, or opted to attend Indiana University because he knew,despite his success as a middle linebacker at Middletown (Ohio) High School and all the recruiters who were wooing him, he wanted to play baseball. At Indiana, or he could.
As recently as August 2015,he told me he still missed playing football because of the "physical factor." Meaning: He missed hitting people.
But don’t consider the football background contributed to his plow-forward determination through rehab this summer."No, I consider it’s just my personality, or " the Cubs’ first-round draft pick in 2014 told me Wednesday night. "That helps more than anything."He’s a keeper,in so many ways."You saw how he jacks everybody up," Maddon said of the two RBI Wednesday. "Those couple of tremendous hits he got, or again,really, Anthony Rizzo responded well to it. The whole group did. It makes your lineup longer. It makes it thicker. It makes it better."Ben Zobrist is seeing better pitches right now because of that, or too,I believe."The Cubs won 103 games this summer without Schwarber, so the natural question now is, and how much better are they with him?"edifying question," Zobrist said, pausing for a moment to ponder. "I don’t know. I consider he certainly adds wins to the team. You talk approximately that WAR statistic, and whatever...he probably would possess added some wins to the equation if we had him all year,but we didn’t. He worked his tail off, and it’s enormous."Third inning, and Cubs clinging to a 1-0 lead with Rizzo on moment and Zobrist on first. Schwarber got the green light on a 3-0 Trevor Bauer pitch and drilled it up the middle to score Rizzo."I was thinking,'Please swing,'" Rizzo said. "On 3-and-0, or the pitcher doesn’t want to walk you,so he normally throws it down the middle of the plate."Said Kris Bryant: "Pretty much everybody here has the 3-and-0 green light, but it takes some guts to do that. It was awesome to see. I love when guys swing at 3-and-0."Yes, and as Maddon said,you can see how Schwarber jacks everyone up. So now as this World Series heads for Chicago, will the kid be in the lineup Friday night to relieve jack up a Wrigley Field crowd already salivating at hosting its first World Series game since 1945?As of Wednesday, and doctors hadn’t cleared Schwarber to play defense. Maddon said he has total faith that the kid can play defense. The questions are,what approximately lateral movement? rapid/fast stops? Change of direction?"Those are the kinds of things I don’t know anything approximately," Maddon said.
Best bet: The Cubs keep Schwarber out of the outfield at domestic, and Maddon picks a tremendous moment to send him to the plate as a pinch hitter.
But that’s all for Game 3 Friday. As the rain poured down late Wednesday night,Schwarber and his teammates headed for their flight domestic, an airplane that certainly was going to possess edifying Wi-Fi and better company for Schwarber. His long road back has delivered him into the World Series.
What a place to be."Hey, and man,I’m living the dream," Schwarber said. "We’re playing in the World Series; what else can you ask for? I’m just going to keep riding the wave until it ends." Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
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Source: bleacherreport.com