Mike Fontenot and Mark DeRosa played together with the Chicago
Cubs for a few seasons, and they’re enjoying their little reunion
on the infield with the Giants this spring. DeRosa might be
enjoying it a bit too much, actually.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.
Mike Fontenot and Mark DeRosa played together with the Chicago Cubs for a few seasons, and they’re enjoying their little reunion on the infield with the Giants this spring.
DeRosa might be enjoying it a bit too much, actually.
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“Oh, I’ve reminded him a few times already,” said DeRosa, recounting the most embarrassing moment in Fontenot’s pro career.
It was June 30, 2007, and the Cubs were playing the Milwaukee Brewers on another of those idyllic afternoons at Wrigley Field. Fontenot was a rookie who’d been up with the team for a few weeks, mostly playing second base.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella decided to give his starting shortstop, Ryan Theriot, a day off. So Fontenot received a rare start at short, and DeRosa was in the lineup at second base.
Fontenot misplayed a ground ball from leadoff batter Corey Hart, an error that opened the door for a four-run first inning. And when the Cubs finally got back to the dugout, a surprise awaited both middle infielders.
“You know Lou. He’s an impulsive guy,” DeRosa said. “He asks me, ‘Have you played short before?’
‘Yeah.’
‘OK, switch.'”
It was the managerial equivalent of writing a player’s name on the detention blackboard. Fontenot was a rookie. He did as told.
“I just remember thinking, ‘Oh man, I hope this isn’t on SportsCenter,'” Fontenot said. “And of course, it was.
“But I hit a triple after that. I guess Lou fired me up.”
Fontenot can laugh at the story now. He knows it reflects less on his ability to play short as it does on Piniella’s famously fiery personality.
The Giants are relying on Fontenot to play serviceably all over the infield this year — including shortstop, where they are thin on options behind veteran Miguel Tejada. It’s one of several ways that Fontenot sees himself contributing to the defending World Series champions.
“I wanted to come back here,” said the 30-year-old Louisiana native, who quickly signed a one-year contract for just more than $1 million this winter. “I had a good experience here, and (manager) Bruce Bochy is always good about getting everyone in there at different times.”
Fontenot didn’t play in the World Series, but he can look up the box score from Game 2 and find his name. Bochy sent Fontenot to the on-deck circle as a pinch hitter before burning him in favor of Aaron Rowand after the Texas Rangers made a pitching change.
“That’s all right,” Fontenot said. “I’m getting a ring.”
As luck would have it, the St. Louis Cardinals will be in town when Fontenot and the Giants receive those rings April 9. That means Theriot, his fellow Cajun, LSU teammate and double-play partner in Chicago, will be leaning against the rail in the visiting dugout.
“I’ll look over there and smile, that’s for sure,” Fontenot said. “Put it on my finger and wiggle it at him. Maybe I’ll have him over for dinner, and I’ll let him look at it up close.”
DeRosa considered the Giants lucky when he heard Fontenot would be coming back.
“Absolutely,” DeRosa said. “Every day he walks in the door, he’s the same guy. He’s consistent in his preparation. And he’s got the ability to go deep. He showed us that the first day he arrived.”
Fontenot, who is generously listed at 5-foot-8, wasn’t even in big league camp with the Cubs in the spring of 2007.
“He hit his way into our lineup,” Piniella said. “He was hitting everything in sight, and with power. He was an instrumental player for us.”
Piniella said it was Fontenot’s hot streak at the plate that compelled him to make that infamous defensive switch.
“I had a very good infield coach, Alan Trammell, and in talking with him, we felt Fontenot was swinging the bat so well, we didn’t want to disturb that,” Piniella said. “So we moved him to second base.
“Yeah, he got kidded around a little bit. But we needed a left-handed bat, and he was hitting just about everything.”
It just so happens that Piniella is a member of the Giants organization now, too, as a newly hired special assistant to GM and longtime friend Brian Sabean. Due to family obligations, Piniella won’t stray far from his Tampa-area home while scouting a handful of camps in the Grapefruit League this spring. He’ll evaluate American League clubs as they play the Rays during the season.
In other words, he won’t be anywhere near the Giants’ dugout should Fontenot have any more blips in the first inning.
“He’s a good infielder to have on a major league roster,” Piniella said. “He’s a good man and a hard-working kid. He does what he’s told.”
— Story by Andrew Baggarly, San Jose Mercury News
