Barrett learns from mistakes, moves on

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Michael Barrett chuckled Sunday over the unintentional double meaning of the question.

The question was whether Barrett's scars from his days as a Cub had healed.

"Physically or mentally?" he replied. "There's a few. No. Fortunately, you have to have perspective in this game. This game is about failure. I failed a lot in Chicago. I'm not going to deny that, or I'm not going to walk away from that.

"The pure fact is you try to learn from your mistakes. You try to learn. Everywhere I've gone, I've made mistakes. In Chicago, it's a strong media, and you're under a microscope, so a lot of things that happened in my time there exposed a lot of my weaknesses, but I feel like I'm fortunate to still be putting on a major-league uniform. I feel like I've still got a lot to offer."

Barrett has one of the more storied careers as a Cub from 2004 through June 20 of last year, when the Cubs traded him to the San Diego Padres.

Although Barrett won a Silver Slugger as the top-hitting catcher in the National League, his defense and pitch-calling seemed always to come into question, and he was involved in several bizarre plays on the field.

The capper came last June 1, when Barrett lost a two-round decision to pitcher and teammate Carlos Zambrano during fistfights in the dugout during a game and later in the clubhouse.

That incident all but punched, so to speak, Barrett's ticket out of town.

"Looking back on it, there's always things you wish you could have done a little bit better," he said. "I don't think about what could have been. I think about what's going to happen now."

In other words, Barrett says he has no regrets, despite seemingly being the center of attention when things went bad.

"There was a lot going on," he said. "I'd been there for quite awhile, and some of the load, I was willing to carry, good and bad. I carried it for so long, and I think it just became a heavy burden. It became a lot to shoulder, with the expectations and the pressure that really had sort of changed and magnified last year.

"I still produced. I still put up numbers. I still did a lot of good things. But it was difficult. Every little mistake that I made was blown out of proportion."

To his credit, Barrett was always accessible after games, good or bad, which he explained by saying he wanted to "be fair" and not run "from problems."

Cubs manager Lou Piniella had nothing but good things to say about Barrett on Sunday. As for his new start in San Diego, Barrett seems to be loving it.

"Everything's going great," he said. "This is a great organization. I'm learning a lot from the staff and management. It's been a pleasant surprise. The things they do here are completely different in a lot of ways, a lot of regards, the way they take care of the players.

"We keep the minor-leaguers together with the big-league guys all spring. We share the same clubhouse. We have an opportunity to get to know everybody in the organization. A lot different in a lot of ways. It's been a memorable experience so far."