(Edmonds, seen here endorsing his paycheck at Wrigley today)
If all Jim Edmonds wants to do is earn the league minimum $289K he’s getting from the Cubs, he could have just offered up the triple, the double, or the walk he drew with bases loaded to cash this week’s check conscience-free. Instead, he did all three. While Sen. Larry Craig’s career ended when he took his “wide stance,” taking said stance appears to have helped Edmonds put off his MLB pension plan for another season. As he told The Sun-Times Toni Ginnetti today:
”It’s getting there,” he said of his swing after hitting his first triple in a year. ”I’ve been working with [hitting coach] Gerald [Perry] and found something [standing] wider. I knew something was there and just had to find it. I’m a line-drive hitter, and keeping the ball out of the air is more my game. This is supposed to be what it feels like.”
Edmonds said only two days ago he still felt like a St. Louis Cardinal at times in the outfield, but that is changing.
”I do in here,” he said of feeling like a Cub. ”The guys around here and the atmosphere in here is unbelievable, and we’re having a great time. The team is what matters. We have to stay on an even keel.”
The Cubs beat the Rockies 5-3, sweeping Colorado (as summer movie sequel to their sweep of the Dodgers last week), and enter June with the best record in baseball for the first time since, yes, 1908. These facts come from MLB’s Nick Zaccardi, who I admonish for even mentioning the Cubs current .635 percentage in the same way you don’t mention a no-hitter during the game. What the month of May did do for the Cubs is answer two questions, center field and our shakiest rotation spot. Offensively, Edmonds has warmed up, and defensively, all he has to do is keep playing next to Soriano to look like a gold glover. Soriano dropped another fly ball this afternoon, an error the Cubs kept under control. Maybe it’s heading for San Diego this week that’s got Edmonds riled up, the town that just dumped him. I hope so, since the Cubs are 10-13 on the road this year, as compared to 26-8 at home. Coincidentally, the Padres received Mark Prior’s annual note from his doctor that he’s too ill to attend the season.
The Cubs went undefeated during this homestand, the first seven game home sweep since 1970. The move to grab Edwards has drawn some results, as has giving Rich Hill’s spot in the rotation to Sean Gallagher a month ago. He’s currently the owner of the goofiest photo on the Cubs roster and a 3-1 record for May.