Peavy a hot ticket back in Alabama
By: DAN HAYES - Staff Writer | ∞
PEORIA, Ariz. ---- Had the Padres not locked up Jake Peavy through 2012, he might be considering a career as an emcee.
The unanimous 2007 National League Cy Young Award winner spoke at six awards banquets, including a roast in his honor in his home state of Alabama, and was grand marshal for the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Ala., this offseason.
"I'm a professional at the banquet circuit level," Peavy said after taking his physical on Friday. "I've got it down. It was different, but there are a lot of good memories, a lot of good reasons to celebrate."
The party is over, however, and Peavy is ready to get back to work. The Padres hold their first workout at 9 a.m. today.
"It's time to get refocused on what you have to do and not what you did in the past," Peavy said. "Baseball is a big 'What have done for me lately?' Certainly last year was gratifying in a personal sense, but as a team we didn't achieve what we wanted to do. Ultimately that's all what we want is to go to the playoffs and be a world champion."
Prior to Hoffman
San Diego native Mark Prior often used to sit in the upper deck at Qualcomm Stadium watching Trevor Hoffman and the Padres. So he found the opportunity to work out with Hoffman a half-dozen times last month enjoyable.
Prior said Hoffman and Greg Maddux, a Chicago Cubs teammate from 2004-06, carry themselves similarly.
"It was obviously cool," Prior said. "He fits that mold with Maddux in guys who are going to be Hall of Famers and they don't act differently. They treat everybody with the same amount of respect. I played with Greg in Chicago, and he wants to be one of the guys. (Both) know exactly where they stand in the history of the game of baseball, but you wouldn't know it through casual conversations."
Postcard from the road
Reliever Heath Bell said there was a peculiar moment during his drive to spring training, when he went to buy a tire in Fort Stockton, Texas. While putting the spare tire back in his trunk, Bell removed his Padres baseball bag and the attendant noticed the logo.
The employee said another Padres player, Ken Caminiti, once stopped by the same store to buy a tire. He told Bell that it happened right before Caminiti won the National League's Most Valuable Player award in 1996.
As he walked away, Bell said, he had one thought: "Dude, I'm going to win MVP."
Mask attack
Michael Barrett and Josh Bard are doing double-takes when they look at the new Wilson catcher's masks being used this season. After several years, popular brand All Star lost its rights, and its masks are no longer available for use by major leaguers.
But getting used to the new mask, one that Bard said makes him look like Rick Moranis' Dark Helmet character from "Spaceballs," might take some time.
"When the All Star hockey mask came out, everybody thought it was gaudy," Barrett said. "But it was more functional; it worked. There's definitely a little bit of a bizarre factor here, but once you get used to it, see it more often, it'll become like any other mask."
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