Suddenly, hitting is foreign to Fukudome
He has been reduced from "Fu-ku-DOH-may!" to "Fu-ku-BOO-me!"
That'll happen when a player has a day like Saturday, with a bases-loaded strikeout at bat and 2 errors on one play in the field.
Just imagine if the Cubs didn't win the game 9-2 over the Nationals.
"I'm going to have a talk with him (this morning)," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said of Kosuke Fukudome.
A folk hero earlier this season, Fukudome now hears a smattering of boos in Wrigley Field.
But the Cubs can't give up on their $48-million Japanese import. They shouldn't give up on him. They won't give up on him.
At least not yet.
"Everybody has his back," said Ryan Dempster, Saturday's winning pitcher.
Dempster means Fukudome's teammates, who marveled along with fans and media at the major-league rookie's performance the first half of the season.
"People probably don't realize what he's going through," Dempster said. "He's in a whole new country with a different culture. Who does he talk to?"
This isn't like the normal ritual of one teammate lifting another's spirits. This is cross-cultural. Not only whom does Fukudome talk with? What can be said?
Fukudome chats with Japanese media before games but not about baseball. As one journalist said, "He doesn't want to sound like he's making excuses."
With local media, Fukudome remains an international man of mystery.
Dempster said of the Cubs' veteran leadership, "Somebody talks to him once in awhile to tell him to not put so much pressure on himself."
The process is ongoing. Nothing has helped since Fukudome plunged into a Fukuslump. He is batting just above .200 since July 1 after previously batting .296.
As long as the Cubs have the National League's best record, they can afford to tinker with Fukudome.
"We'll see how we can help him," Piniella said.
Cub fans are frustrated with Fukudome for a couple reasons, not the least of which is his $12 million average annual salary.
Most of all, though, is the first impression Fukudome made back in April: Baseball looked like it came so easy to him.
Where is that guy? Now Fukudome looks like he never swung a bat before. You heard of a hitter with his foot in the bucket? Too often this guy's whole body is in the bucket.
"Look," a scout said while watching a Fukudome at-bat on TV, "he's running (to first base) while he's still hitting."
It isn't pretty. Actually it's pretty ugly. But the Cubs have a decent lead in the NL Central and a little time to work with Fukudome.
They need him because, as Dempster put it, "He's struggling with the bat but can play (right field) as well as anybody. He'll be a big part of this thing."
Every team relies on pitching and defense down the stretch and in the playoffs, and Fukudome helps the former with the latter.
The Cubs can endure a slumping bat in the outfield as long as the rest of the offense produces.
If Fukudome has to be benched, too many guys have to be moved out of their current roles for Piniella to be comfortable.
Better that the Cubs have Fukudome's back awhile longer to see whether "Fu-ku-DOH-may" re-merges.