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Wilson owes debt of gratitude to Nunez
Rob Biertempfel is the Pirates beat writer. He can be reached via e-mail. Also check out Biertempfel's blog, Pirates Q&A or follow him on Twitter.
Midway through last season, Wilson traded one of his own brand new, signature Rawlings gloves for a well-worn one Nunez was using. Wilson has used his teammate's mitt ever since.
"I never usually use my own mitts because I like them already broken in," Wilson said.
So is Nunez the secret of Wilson's success?
"I don't know about that," Nunez said with a laugh. "I think he's his own secret of success. He works hard and he's in the right place every time to make the plays, the routine plays and the outstanding ones."
Two years ago, when he was still in the St. Louis organization, Wilson used a glove he got from pitcher Daryl Kile.
During spring training, Wilson was called over from minor-league camp to play a game with the Cardinals regulars. When Kile saw Wilson's ratty, old glove, he tossed over one of his own and told Wilson to keep it.
Wilson replaced the pitcher's web with the H-type web he prefers. He used the glove in every game he played until it finally fell apart last season, causing Wilson to make the swap with Nunez.
KIle died a few weeks ago while on a road trip with the Cardinals. Wilson has Kile's mitt at his home in California, and plans to make a display for it.
"It's always been a special glove for me, but it's even more special now," Wilson said softly. "It shows what kind of guy he was, to give some rookie kid he barely knew his glove."
At any given time, Wilson has as many as a half-dozen gloves in his locker. One of his backup gloves has his son's name, Jacob Tyler, stitched along the side.
"If the Nunez glove were to go down, I'd go to that one," he said.
Wilson never uses his game glove during batting practice — "That'll take the life right out of it," he said — and knows it is time for another trade when the pocket gets too deep and the ball begins to stick.
He spreads a little bit of pine tar on the back side and along the inside base of his gloves. On humid days, Wilson rubs the fingers of his bare right (throwing) hand across it lightly to remove sweat and add a little stickiness.
He rubs a Rawlings brand conditioner into leather to keep it supple. A couple of times a year, he'll apply an ingredient most Little Leaguers swear by: shaving cream.
Wilson is careful when he sets down his glove in the dugout or in his locker. In order to keep the strap that goes over the hand tight, he usually stands the glove up on its hee.
"I've got love for my glove," he said. "You've got to take care of your glove, because it's your livlihood.
"If you don't have a good glove, it starts to get at your subconscious, and you start not trusting yourself because your glove doesn't feel right. You've got to put your life on the line with your glove."
WHEW!
Kansas City general manager Allard Baird found a way to break up the nervous tension in the clubhouse on the final day before the trading deadline. A few minutes past the deadline, Baird walked into the room and everyone stopped talking.
Baird looked around the room, saw the players staring back at him expectantly, and smiled.
"Geez, what are you guys all doing here?" he said. "I thought I traded all of you."
When laughter broke out, it was obvious Baird had managed to relax everyone. In fact, he had not made a single trade that afternoon.
GOTTA WEAR SHADES
Daytime baseball at Chicago's Wrigley field is a quaint throwback to baseball's good old days. It's a nice excuse to skip school or blow off an afternoon at the office. It's a reason to turn off "The Guiding Light" and tune in to WGN.
But according to Sammy Sosa, all those days games are killing the Cubs.
"We can win more games if players are rested the way they are when they play night games," Sosa said. "If you bring a player here from another team that has played night games most of the time, it's going to be tough for him to adjust. Suddenly, he has to get up early in the morning."
Are you listening, Chad Hermansen?
A city ordinance permits no more than 18 night games per season at Wrigley Field. The residents of Wrigleyville, the neighborhood around the stadium, are not sympathetic to Sosa's plea.
"Sammy is a good ballplayer," Chicago alderman Bernard Hansen said. "If (day games were) so bad on him, why was he able to hit all those home runs? He's a world-class player. I don't know why it should be so tough on him or anybody else."
This argument isn't really about the effects of stadium lights on home-run swings, is it? Of course not.
"The real story is night games and television revenue," Hansen said. "That's what it's all about. Until the Cubs get off the dime on wanting everything, the community says there's nothing to talk about."
I'LL CALL HIM MINI-ME
Sunday, Andre Dawson had hoped to be in Cooperstown, N.Y., for his induction into the Hall of Fame. Instead, he was at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, where ushers were passing out Dawson bobblehead dolls.
Dawson, who works in the Florida Marlins front office, said he is not angry about being passed over by Hall voters in his first year of eligibility.
"It'll probably happen," he said. "I always said politics plays a role to some degree."
For now, Dawson will settle for being immortalized by a ceramic doll bearing his likeness with a spring for a neck. He even claims to see the resemblence.
"That's the one thing that goes through your mind when they mention it: What is it going to look like? My thing was, is it going to look like my younger years? Was I going to have the facial hair and the big afro?
"It came out pretty decent. I was kind of shocked, though, because it was smaller than the Tim Raines bobblehead."
NO IMPACT
When Montreal acquired slugger Cliff Floyd in a trade, it seemed the Expos were poised for a playoff run. So why did they deal him away again two weeks later?
The answer is in the numbers. The Expos went 7-11 with Floyd in their lineup, and gained no ground in the race for the NL wild card spot. He batted .208 with three homers, four RBI and 10 strikeouts.
"I'm part of the problem," Floyd said after packing his backs for Boston. "I've tried hard, maybe too hard, and I haven't produced the way I'd like to."
Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez said the team got the wrong player from Montreal.
"We need a big-time pitcher, someone with big-game experience, like Bartolo (Colon)," Martinez said.
STATS, STREAKS AND SLUMPS
