GaryMrMets
02-24-2005, 11:47 PM
Matheny a popular addition with San Francisco
By JANIE McCAULEY
.c The Associated Press
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Mike Matheny enjoys the solitude of Scottsdale Stadium at 6:30 a.m.
Before many of his teammates are even awake, San Francisco's new catcher is riding the stationary bike, stretching, or hitting in the cage. He gets his personal work done early to make sure there's still plenty of time to catch up with pitchers before they take the field.
``Every day in the uniform's a blessing,'' Matheny said Thursday, sitting in an empty dugout while his teammates got dressed. ``The first goal out here is to win, leave nothing behind. Then it's hopefully to impact people in a positive way, on and off the field. That's kind of the goal I set for myself.''
It's the little things that have made Matheny one of baseball's best defensive catchers, and the Giants are thrilled to have him after their rocky relationship with his predecessor, A.J. Pierzynski.
Matheny's businesslike approach is already helping his pitchers get more out of their throwing sessions.
``One thing that kind of sticks out is he just has a real motivating, positive way about him,'' Giants ace Jason Schmidt said. ``When he's catching, he's into it like it's a real game situation. He's setting up down there like it's 0-2 and he wants that fastball down and away. You make a good pitch, it's like it's strike three on somebody. He's really into it.''
Matheny, who won his third Gold Glove award last season, felt this would be the right fit from the moment the Giants came into the picture during the offseason.
He signed a $10.5 million, three-year contract in December after spending the last five seasons with St. Louis. Matheny is highly regarded for his conscientious work with pitchers - and it's something he just considers part of his job.
``I look around and there's a lot of guys with a lot more talent,'' he said. ``It's all about going through this game for me without any regrets. I control what I can control. Whenever I talk to kids, I say you control what you can, which is your attitude, your concentration and your effort.''
Matheny helped the Cardinals win the NL pennant last season, then they were swept in the World Series by the Boston Red Sox.
He hit .247 with five homers and 50 RBIs in 2004 and led all NL catchers with a .999 fielding percentage this year, making just one error in 801 total chances. He threw out 28.4 percent of potential base stealers last year - good for fourth in the NL - and has thrown out 32 percent in his career.
``He brings more experience, more maturity,'' manager Felipe Alou said. ``He's a tremendous individual. You don't find too many people like that.''
Matheny can already tell the Giants are committed to having a big a season after missing the playoffs in the final weekend last year. San Francisco has won 191 games the past two seasons under Alou.
``It's the way that people are talking from the outside, and from the inside, guys talking about how we've got a good chance here, we've got a good club,'' he said. ``It's encouraging to me and something I didn't have any idea about.
``Obviously, you can look at it on paper and see that everything looks right, but until you get here and start to see how people are mixing, how tight a group this is and that chemistry, you can't say enough about it. I'm still very confident this was the right decision for me.''
Matheny, 34, is a .239 career hitter with 51 homers and 366 RBIs in 11 seasons for Milwaukee, Toronto and St. Louis.
He didn't have an error in all of 2003.
Ask any pitcher in the clubhouse about Matheny's presence and they'll have something good to say.
Lefty reliever Scott Eyre ran into Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter this offseason at one of Eyre's wife's horse shows.
``The first thing the guy said to me was, `Matheny lowers your ERA just by being behind the plate,''' Eyre said. ``He said he's not even a good catcher, he's a great catcher. He said, `If you throw a shutout, he's more excited than you are. He gets more excited than you do coming off the field, because you got the guy out and he feels responsible.' That's unheard of now days.''
One day last season, some Giants pitchers were talking about who they'd pick to catch them if they could choose from anyone in baseball. Right away, Schmidt said Matheny.
``All of a sudden here he is in the same clubhouse,'' Schmidt said. ``I don't know if that had anything to do with it. That was the first thing I thought of when we got him.''
02/24/05 18:06 EST
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
By JANIE McCAULEY
.c The Associated Press
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Mike Matheny enjoys the solitude of Scottsdale Stadium at 6:30 a.m.
Before many of his teammates are even awake, San Francisco's new catcher is riding the stationary bike, stretching, or hitting in the cage. He gets his personal work done early to make sure there's still plenty of time to catch up with pitchers before they take the field.
``Every day in the uniform's a blessing,'' Matheny said Thursday, sitting in an empty dugout while his teammates got dressed. ``The first goal out here is to win, leave nothing behind. Then it's hopefully to impact people in a positive way, on and off the field. That's kind of the goal I set for myself.''
It's the little things that have made Matheny one of baseball's best defensive catchers, and the Giants are thrilled to have him after their rocky relationship with his predecessor, A.J. Pierzynski.
Matheny's businesslike approach is already helping his pitchers get more out of their throwing sessions.
``One thing that kind of sticks out is he just has a real motivating, positive way about him,'' Giants ace Jason Schmidt said. ``When he's catching, he's into it like it's a real game situation. He's setting up down there like it's 0-2 and he wants that fastball down and away. You make a good pitch, it's like it's strike three on somebody. He's really into it.''
Matheny, who won his third Gold Glove award last season, felt this would be the right fit from the moment the Giants came into the picture during the offseason.
He signed a $10.5 million, three-year contract in December after spending the last five seasons with St. Louis. Matheny is highly regarded for his conscientious work with pitchers - and it's something he just considers part of his job.
``I look around and there's a lot of guys with a lot more talent,'' he said. ``It's all about going through this game for me without any regrets. I control what I can control. Whenever I talk to kids, I say you control what you can, which is your attitude, your concentration and your effort.''
Matheny helped the Cardinals win the NL pennant last season, then they were swept in the World Series by the Boston Red Sox.
He hit .247 with five homers and 50 RBIs in 2004 and led all NL catchers with a .999 fielding percentage this year, making just one error in 801 total chances. He threw out 28.4 percent of potential base stealers last year - good for fourth in the NL - and has thrown out 32 percent in his career.
``He brings more experience, more maturity,'' manager Felipe Alou said. ``He's a tremendous individual. You don't find too many people like that.''
Matheny can already tell the Giants are committed to having a big a season after missing the playoffs in the final weekend last year. San Francisco has won 191 games the past two seasons under Alou.
``It's the way that people are talking from the outside, and from the inside, guys talking about how we've got a good chance here, we've got a good club,'' he said. ``It's encouraging to me and something I didn't have any idea about.
``Obviously, you can look at it on paper and see that everything looks right, but until you get here and start to see how people are mixing, how tight a group this is and that chemistry, you can't say enough about it. I'm still very confident this was the right decision for me.''
Matheny, 34, is a .239 career hitter with 51 homers and 366 RBIs in 11 seasons for Milwaukee, Toronto and St. Louis.
He didn't have an error in all of 2003.
Ask any pitcher in the clubhouse about Matheny's presence and they'll have something good to say.
Lefty reliever Scott Eyre ran into Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter this offseason at one of Eyre's wife's horse shows.
``The first thing the guy said to me was, `Matheny lowers your ERA just by being behind the plate,''' Eyre said. ``He said he's not even a good catcher, he's a great catcher. He said, `If you throw a shutout, he's more excited than you are. He gets more excited than you do coming off the field, because you got the guy out and he feels responsible.' That's unheard of now days.''
One day last season, some Giants pitchers were talking about who they'd pick to catch them if they could choose from anyone in baseball. Right away, Schmidt said Matheny.
``All of a sudden here he is in the same clubhouse,'' Schmidt said. ``I don't know if that had anything to do with it. That was the first thing I thought of when we got him.''
02/24/05 18:06 EST
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.