KOA Radio 850
April 3, 2012: Aurora Colorado – Mark Gunter and George Crocker open the 2012 season with a chat with Chris Weaver, talking about his career, last postseason and his childhood playing ball.
Gunt: Welcome back to Aurora Baseball, folks. The defending Sovereign League Champs open their 2012 campaign with the first of three with the Bakersfield Bears. I’m Mark Gunter, and my partner…
Crock: Me, me, me! That’s me, George Crocker, and Marky, we need to make this a quick one. I gotta get down to the field. Important business at hand. You know, they picked me – me, George Crocker! – to be Master of Ceremonies at the big Connect Four match. I’m stoked!
Gunt: We’ll do what we can, George. Welcome to the show Aurora left fielder extraordinaire, Chris Weaver.
Weaver: Thanks, guys. George, we are all looking forward to the Connect Four match-up. It’s tough for us players. Chris Rodriguez was always pretty good to us. He brought me here the day after the Inaugural Draft. Who knows where I may be today if Chris hadn’t traded for me? Looking at what San Antonio has done over the years, I could be in Gloucester, London, Florida (shudders) or – God forbid – Crystal Lake. Then again, the Tophams have been great, as well. That Will, he’s a hoot.
Crock: So have you laid a bet on the match? Plenty of bookies floating about the park. I can get one over here for you. I’ve made five bets. Each time I turned around, I got better odds!
Weaver: Looks like you’ve already decided who you want to win.
Crock: You like the Fog jersey? I’d never play there. Too cold. I remember back at K-Zoo, we had games that were, like, –20°. We manned up, though, and played anyway. Icicles hanging from the moustache – now that’s baseball. Ever see some of those games from Candlestick Park? Fog hanging between the mound and the plate? A guy could get beaned or something. Cold, I say!
Gunt: Chris, before we discuss this season, let’s look back to last year. Your first three years, you play almost every game. Then in 2010, you miss 6 weeks with injuries and last season you miss 11 more weeks. Are injuries something that is going to be problematic for the rest of your career?
Weaver: I certainly hope not. It was my ankles, my knees and my shoulders. I spent the offseason working hard on a flexibility and strength program focused on my joints. I don’t think I’ll hit for the power I did in the past, so strength for joint support rather than drive was really my focus.
Crock: So then in the playoffs, you were the man! Dude, you smoked the post-season. You’ve got a .346 career playoff batting average. Don’t you wish every game were a playoff game?
Weaver: It’s weird. Some guys just seem to not be disturbed by the pressure and others just wilt under that pressure.
Crock: Clearly, you’re talking about “Ice Cold”. What was his deal? He just seems not to want to talk about it. Any insight on Richardson’s failure?
Weaver: I feel for Mark. He’s taken a lot of heat for his performance. He started slowly and just kept pressing. When we got to Florida, the pressure he put on himself was even greater. You know how it is, George; once you start pressing, it’s like an endless cycle.
Gunt: Was the loss of Octávio Pexego another pressure-inducer for Richardson?
Weaver: No doubt. Mark’s a funny guy. He seems kind of gruff and aloof, but when you get to know him, he is a sensitive guy. He was even looking a little dewy-eyed in the clubhouse this morning with the thought of Chris Rodriguez leaving the team.
Gunt: 2012 marks an important season in your career. After the 2008 season, you signed a $57 million contract which you are in the last year of. Have you had any discussions with the team about an extension? They have signed a number of guys to contracts: Knight, Berry and McDonald, for example.
Weaver: Well… yes and no. Will Topham asked me if I wanted to come back next season, which of course I do. This is a great team. Pexego, Knight, Richardson and the great young pitching coming up? Too bad about Miguel. I do fear that the new CBA may prevent my signing an extension.
Gunt: Might we see a free agent Weaver? How about Japan? Just like Woody? Would you go to Japan? I have friends there, you know. They’ve got the best sushi there, you know. I can’t wait to see Woody rip up those LRSers.
Weaver: Well, it is a business and I know the Tophams plan on keeping the team in the black while fielding a winner. They’re not keen on doing what Tempe is doing. If we could frontload a contract – you know, a “Richardson Contract” – then it might have been a done deal already. I like it here and I’d play for less than my $19 million, but obviously that won’t work under the new rules unless I go free agency. That could be risky, for them and me.
Gunt: And that $19 million is a lot of salary space for a team with a bunch of young guys with growing salaries. Do you think the injuries from the past two seasons scare the team?
Weaver: Maybe. After signing me, Richardson and Roach to big deals and our losing so much time to injuries last year, and then looking where John’s at… yeah, I could see it as a problem. Hopefully I’ll make it through unscathed this season.
Crock: Tell us, dude, like, growing up in Yakima, did you guys play “Apple Ball” or something like that? Huh? Maybe “Strike Apple”? What was baseball like in Washington? Any brush-back apples?
Weaver: Funny you say that George. My Dad worked two farm jobs while we were growing up. During apple season, he’d be on the ladders, picking the apples. My brother and I would tag along when we were younger, small aluminum bat dragging behind us. He’d find a bad apple on the tree and toss it to us. We’d play “One Pitch”.
Gunt: One Pitch? Never heard of it.
Weaver: It was our form of “Strikeout”, but you got one pitch, unless the apple stayed in one piece. If you got that apple to explode into mush, then it was a home run. During the height of picking season, we’d get a whole nine innings in.
Crock: Crrr-a-zzzzy! Applesauce flying all about. Pretty messy, I bet. Did you, like, eat the mush left on the bat? Which apples were best? Was there an apple that went the farthest?
Weaver: Well, Fujis were more likely to stay in one piece if you fouled it off. Those Golden Delicious, though, they’d shatter on the ground if you swung and missed.
Gunt: So do you credit apple baseball with your success in the PEBA?
Weaver: Actually, my Dad’s other job was at the hops fields. We’d go off in a corner, pick those hops and pitch them in rapid succession. That took some serious concentration. If you hit it just right, you could send it back up the middle, so we’d tried to fire them right back at each other. You can probably guess who took the most hops in the chest.
Gunt: So what are your thoughts about the 2012 season? Do you see Aurora repeating as Desert Hills champs?
Weaver: Well, it’ll be harder this season. Tempe will have a full season with Conan and that’ll be huge for them. Bakersfield got better adding Guerera. I was surprised by that. They had such a bad start last year, so if they avoid that they’ll be there until the end. I don’t see us winning 115-120 games again this year, but I think winning 100 should at least get us to the playoffs. I think the gap between us, Crystal Lake and the rest of the teams has shrunk. I think the league will see a little more parity this year, keeping win totals down.
Crock: Anyone in particular you looking forward to seeing this year? Who might be your key to the season? Will “Icy” be back on top?
Weaver: I think Mark Richardson will be fine. He’s a great player. He’ll put up Royal Raker numbers again. I’m looking forward to seeing Bill Bradley for a full season. I think he could threaten Hancock’s strikeout record. A key to the season? Hmmm…. I think John Roach. Personally, I wish he’d have accepted a minor league assignment to work on his strength. We need him and we need him to be the John Roach of old.
Gunt: Very good. Well, we need to get moving on folks. George Crocker is dancing about, trying to get out of here.
Crock: Yep… gotta move… I’ve got some great material lined up for the fans. This is going to rock, Aurora! If you’re going to the game, you better get here because this is going to be dynamite! You know… dy-no-mite! Got to run; I see Chrissy walking onto the field.
Gunt: Good luck on the season and Opening Day, Chris Weaver.
Weaver: Thanks, guys. What is Crocker doing? Is that cartwheels out onto the field?
Gunt: Ouch! That looked like it hurt…
