Speed demon Campana produces rare feat
The Cubs have a new folk hero.
So sit down, Sam Fuld.
You’re last decade’s news, Augie Ojeda.
Make way for Tony Campana. And don’t blink because you might miss him.
Campana, the Cubs’ 5-foot-8 dynamo, had the time of his life Friday in a 4-3 Cubs victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field.
The victory was the Cubs’ sixth in a row, and they won despite themselves on a few occasions as they improved to 48-65.
But more on that later.
Campana, in the lineup to give regular center fielder Marlon Byrd a rest, got things going in the first inning, and it only looked like he was running at fast-forward speed. After Starlin Castro led off with a single, the left-handed hitting Campana slapped the ball down the left-field line. The ball hit the side wall and bounced past Reds left fielder Yonder Alonso and to the vines.
Campana was gone.
“The first thing I thought was the third baseman’s going to catch it,” Campana said. “Then it got by him. I said, ‘OK, that’s a double.’ Then I saw the guy hit the wall. I’m like, ‘I got a chance to get all the way around.’ I almost caught Starlin, and I was hoping I wasn’t going to catch him.”
He didn’t, as he made it all the way around for an inside-the-park home run.
It was Campana’s first regular-season home run as a pro. In the playoffs last year for Class AA Tennessee, he hit an inside-the-park homer. Before that, Campana’s last hit in college was a regular-sized home run.
The last Cub to hit an inside-the-parker was Geovany Soto at Houston in 2008. Sammy Sosa was the last Cub to do so at Wrigley Field, in 2001.
Campana became the first major-leaguer to have an inside-the-park homer be his first big-league home run since Florida’s Emilio Bonifacio on April 6, 2009. He is the first Cubs player to do so since Carmen Mauro on Oct. 3, 1948 at St. Louis.
Campana is the first Cub to have his first homer be an inside-the-parker at Wrigley.
So how did Campana sum up his day?
“It was fun, he said. “I got out there and got a chance to play. Every time I get in there, I just try to make things exciting, and I think I did that today.”
Manager Mike Quade was asked before the game about the team’s recent spate of home runs. Tyler Colvin also hit one Friday, giving the Cubs 12 in their last four games. Quade joked that there was a chance for more Friday, but probably not from Campana.
“You guys are good,” Quade told the media. “I looked at Pat (bench coach Listach) and said, ‘You’re not going to believe this.’”
Campana also made a leaping catch in the vines on a drive by Brandon Phillips with a man on in the seventh and the Cubs ahead 3-2. Earlier in the game, he dived for a for a flyball off the bat of Reds pitcher Mike Leake, only to have the ground jar the ball loose.
“It was in my glove; I blame my glove,” Campana joked.
Campana’s heroics made a winner of Ryan Dempster (9-8, 4.87 ERA), who worked 6 somewhat bumpy innings, throwing 110 pitches.
The Cubs had chances to blow the game open, particularly in the sixth, when they had runners at second and third with nobody out ahead 3-2. But Alfonso Soriano had a poor at-bat, rolling the ball over for a groundout. Koyie Hill and pinch hitter Reed Johnson both struck out.
But relievers Sean Marshall, Kerry Wood (1 homer allowed) and Carlos Marmol (24th save) did enough, allowing the legend of Tony Campana stand tall.
So to speak.
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