Camp Quade off to a rocking start for Cubs

By Paul Sullivan

MESA, Ariz.- Back in the day, Sammy Sosa would have someone set up his boom box at his locker before his arrival at Cubs camp.

Until Sosa made his traditionally late entrance, it looked like the boom box had a locker of its own.

Times change, and though there was no music emanating from the clubhouse at Fitch Park this morning, manager Mike Quade was rocking out to Led Zeppelin in his nearby office.

Quade said he needed a Robert Plant fix early in the morning to get his juices flowing.

Here are a few other tidbits from Day Three of Cubs camp:

Emulating Colvin

Centerfielder Brett Jackson looks at Tyler Colvin's eye-opening camp last year as an inspiration.

While the first-round pick isn't likely to make the team out of spring training, neither was Colvin last year at this time.

"Colvin is a good role model for all minor leaguers as it is," Jackson said. "The way he attacked his work ethic and made his strides making it to the big leagues and making an impact in the big leagues. Colvin is a good example for us all. Obviously, that's the dream -- come out to spring training, tear it up and get that invite."

How does he control his nerves?

"Just got to get goofy and have a good time," he said.

Goofball Watch

The gold standard for goofiness in Cubs camp is pitcher Ryan Dempster, who takes it upon himself to keep things from getting too serious.

"I've always been kind of goofy, I guess," Dempster said. "I look at it like, we're playing baseball, man. Like, we've been joking around lately, 'It sure does suck having to come to work every day.' This is baseball. We get to play baseball for a living. It's a great, great thing. And I think if you take that approach... Yeah, when we're between the white lines, you want to do the best you can, you want to compete, just like when you did when you were eight years old or 18 years old or 28. It doesn't matter. I think you're going to be in the elite levels because you have that competitiveness in you.

"But we're still having fun. You've still got to enjoy it. You've got to have some fun, maybe tie someone's shoelaces together or something. Have some fun."

A TV reporter told Dempster: "Yeah, you could be a reporter."

"I don't know," he replied. "It's not as easy as everyone thinks."

Next question...

Colvin, meanwhile, is officially tired of being asked about the broken bat incident that hospitalized him last September in Florida, though he politely answers questions about it every day.

On Tuesday, Colvin was once again asked to recall the "whole ordeal" of the bat incident.

"The whole ordeal?" he said. "Got hit, went to the hospital, healed up and got here."

Colvin joked he might put a sign up at his locker reading: "What bat incident?"

Comeback time

Veteran Braden Looper is making a comeback after taking off the 2009 season, having signed a minor league deal to compete for one of the two rotation vacancies. Looper lives near Orland Park and recently shoveled himself out of the blizzard like everyone else. He spent the last year watching his kids, water skiing and being in what he called "kind of a retirement mode."

"I wasn't going to just leave my kids and go anywhere," he said. "It just didn't work out last year. This year it just happened to work out perfectly."

Looper didn't watch much baseball on TV, and only went to a couple games at U.S. Cellular Field because his son's Little League team took trips there.

"You just try to seclude yourself from it," he said. "It's a weird feeling. It's hard to explain."

General manager Jim Hendry gave him a call last month, and Looper had a long relationship from pitching coach Mark Riggins from their days in the Cardinals organization.

"Literally, this just happened in a couple days," he said. "Here I am, and we'll see what happens."

So why does a major league player "retire" and decide to live in Chicago?

"That's what love will do for you?" he said. "My wife was born and raised there. It's been bad, definitely an interesting offseason. A lot of shoveling, a lot of throwing in a gymnasium off a brick wall. (Monday) was the first day I threw outside in forever."

Source: http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2011/02/camp-quade-off-to-a-rocking-start.html

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