Mick in Mesa: A Special Day in Tucson, Javier Baez, & Roger Hoover

A Special Game in Tucson

Today I'm making the two-hour trip to Tucson where the Cubs will take on the Dodgers at 4 p.m. EST, in what will be an emotional game for reasons outside of baseball.  The proceeds from today's game between the two clubs will go towards the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation, which is a foundation that was formed to honor 9-year-old Christina after she was tragically killed in the Tucson shootings in 2011.  It's needless to say today's game is significant.

This is an event that I feel lucky to be able to be a small part of something showing support for Christina-Taylor, the Green family and the people of Tucson.  There are terrible people in the world; that's just the way it is.  But there many more great people in the world than those that are terrible, and when tragedy like this happens we all rally around one another.  That's what is great about our country.

It's not just about the baseball connection or the Cubs connection today, but it's about the human connection that the family went through.  Just trying to even wrap your hands around how difficult it must be for the Green family is nearly impossible.  But hopefully, the things that made her a special young lady will shine through and touch some other people through today's broadcast.  That's why I'm proud to say I'm a part of this and I've been given the opportunity to work this particular game.

There are actually connections between the Green family and the Cubs as Christina's father was a former Cubs Minor League player and her grandfather, Dallas Green, was a general manager for the Cubs from 1982-1987.  Green actually hired Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti to his first job in the major leagues when he hired him while with the Cubs in the '80s.

The game last year was held between the Dodgers and the White Sox, and the foundation used proceeds to go towards buying books for schools that struggled to buy new textbooks.  The Green family just tries to do something with the funds that the Christina-Taylor would have liked.  It's through the organization they help honor her memory.

And today I'm working with Jody Davis, who I like a lot.  He was the Cubs Minor League catching coordinator and is a Cubs legend.  Jody was a two time All-Star catcher and a Gold Glove winner.  He's will be handling the color commentary for today's broadcast and I'm really excited about that.

Make sure to listen to our broadcast today and help us honor Christina-Taylor Green by going to Cubs.com and listening to the game. 

Also, to learn more about the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation, visit their website help out the foundation.

Javier Baez Impresses During Spring Training

Throughout the spring it has been evident that the most impressive young player this spring training was Javier Baez. I'm excited about having Baez be a Smokie and being able to see him play every day.  I'm not just talking about the home runs and the RBIs, because at last check he led the Cubs in both.

But he Baez plays the game with a flare.  He's intelligent and at the same time aggressive.  He has a lot of natural ability and you can already see him making adjustments, whether it is making adjustments at the plate or adjustments in the field.  To me, one of the most impressive feats he had during spring training was a play that won't show his name in the books.

There was an infield popup during a recent game in the late innings.  There was a runner on first who was running on the pitch, and he didn't know the ball had been popped up.  So Baez saw that, caught his eyes, and then like Derek Jeter came across the bag like he was about to catch a double play ball.  The runner started to jog off the field like the inning was over.  Then all of the sudden, the infield popup was caught and the infielders hardly knew what was going on.  Cubs players thought there was no way the runner wouldn't have been back at first, but it was caught and they threw back to first to get the runner for a double play.

It was so impressive.  You don't see a lot of young guys that have that type of recognition at 20 years old.  He still has some polishing to do, but there's something special about him.  You watch him and he is positioning a player in the outfield or he is directing traffic in the infield.

All the time you hear people say "this is next big thing or the next big guy" and you see a lot of holes in their game.  I've always thought too that scouting is tough because a lot of times they will look over the great stuff and just point out the limitations of players.  But with Baez, the Cubs are really lucky to have him.  With the way he is right now in his development, he could be something special.  He is a building block for the Cubs and when he is not in the lineup it makes a difference.

Baez is a player the other teams have to keep an eye on.  I suspect he will start the year at Daytona, and if he performs well, he could be in a Smokies uniform anywhere from May to August.  A lot of that will depend on his development, but whether it's this year or next year, Javier Baez will make a huge impact at the major league level.

Roger Hoover Visits for the Week

I'm really lucky to have worked with some great guys since I've been doing baseball.  A guy that goes all out to contribute, no matter what the cause might be, and has helped out enormously just because he wants to is Roger Hoover.

Over the last three years, Roger has been extremely helpful when putting the Cubs broadcast together.  So this year, I told Roger he needed to come out to Arizona and be a part of spring training for a week.  His trip didn't get started on a great note because he flew with his great aunt.  She worked many years at American Airlines so he could fly stand by, but he got halfway to Arizona and couldn't get a flight to Phoenix.  Instead of flying into Phoenix, Roger flew into Tucson and rode the bus to the Valley of the Sun.  But once he got here, it was really fun.

We had a really nice time and he got to engineer the games and meet a lot of people.  He's always been a really big Len Kasper fan and getting to meet him was something he enjoyed.  I appreciate Roger and all the guys who have helped put our broadcasts together.  I could name 10 or 15 different excellent broadcast voices that have lent their voice for different stuff on the broadcast.

It takes all of that to do what we do and we are really proud of the final product on the Cubs.com and MLB advanced media board.  We went two games, had some off days and checked out the San Francisco Giants at their stadium in Scottsdale.  We just got to pal around a little bit, so it was good.

Roger now is the voice of the Jacksonville Suns and he had leave to head to start with those duties.  But when he got here it was like a kid's first day of school, and when he left it was like the last day of camp.  He didn't want to go, but he needed to get to Jacksonville.  I have no doubts Roger will be great with the Suns and I wish him nothing but the best as he embarks on his new position.