Chone Figgins Seattle Mariners (6-14-2003)

What’s your baseball philosophy?  What makes you successful?

Basically, it’s just working hard and believe that I can play.  When you talk to a lot of big leaguers, they know that they can play and they believe in their ability, whatever it is.  Whether it’s hitting the ball hard or playing good defense, or making good pitches, everybody believes in their ability.

How about your hitting philosophy?

Basically, get a pitch I can handle and if it’s middle away take it the other way. If it’s middle in, hit it back up the middle. If I’m just a hair out in front, then I hit it down the line. Mostly back up the middle.  Stay on the ball and hit it back up the middle.

It doesn’t matter where you’re hitting, the big leagues or the minors?

The big leagues also. It doesn’t matter. Like I said before talking to a lot of players in the big leagues say you should take pitches and try to hit them back up the middle. It keeps you in a rhythm at the plate from pulling off the balls or dropping your back shoulder. When you’re thinking back up the middle, mechanically you’re in the spot where you need to be.

What’s your strengths right now?

Once again, knowing my ability that I can play, in my mind.  That’s a baseball player’s strength is his mind.

Now, pitchers throw you guys inside and outside to set you hitters up. Do hitters set up pitchers?

Yeah, you have an idea of what a certain pitcher is going to do once you play him enough. Sometimes you don’t play a team enough or a pitcher enough that you know what they’re going to do but, if you’ve got a guy throwing sinkers down and away, then you know you’ve pretty much got to stay up in the middle and go the other way. Sometimes you do if you know the pitcher, yes, you do.

Sometimes those guys that they say have all the talent in the world don’t seem to go as far as guys with lesser talent.  Do you think that’s true?

Not necessarily. They had a baseball poll in Baseball America, and the poll was guys that are drafted in the later rounds that have made it to the big leagues more than guys in the early rounds.  It’s not so much that the guys in the early rounds are bad or don’t work hard, it’s just that they’re pushed a little more and in return they get mentally beat up more. Guys in the later rounds have nothing to lose, so they put it all on the line every day and they know that they have to focus because that could be their last shot.

Do you think that guys in the first round get more chances?

Definitely, yes. That’s why they’re first rounders. I don’t say they shouldn’t but they’re first rounders because they worked hard and they got to be in that spot.

In spring training there’s 10 guys in your position and you have to compete with say, three or five of them just on your one team.  How do you approach that?

Basically, it’s one of those things you can’t worry about who’s around you. If you take care of your job and get the job done, then it’s going to stand out more than you worrying about this player or that player, because no matter what you do it’s ultimately the team’s decision of who’s going to go where. If you just show that you’re going to play up to your ability and not worry about things that are going around you, most of the times you end up working out on top. Maybe not making the team, but if something happens you’re the first one that goes.

Do you read the sports page and the scouting reports about you?

Sometimes if it’s right in front of me I do, yeah.

Do you ever seek it out or see what Baseball America thinks about you in the top prospects in the organization?

Yeah, I do. It doesn’t bother me. With some players it bothers them to look at that stuff, but I read it. It can be either be a confidence builder, or to me a confidence builder. It’s whether they’re talking bad about me or talking good. To me, if somebody’s talking about me, then my name is getting out there, so that’s just they way I look at it.

How about bad press?  How do you deal with that?  If they’re saying Chone is in a slump and he can’t hit this pitch, how do you react?

Sometimes it gets to you.  I mean we’re all human. But that’s their job sometimes is to stir things up. That’s a reporter’s job that I’ve learned. It’s their job to stir things up, to get the story.  They’re just like us, trying to get the job done, and if they have a good story, then they get the job done.  Once again being a baseball player you have to be mentally strong because you play so many days, you’re away from everybody, you can be going good and stuff is still going bad. If you’re not mentally strong, it’s going to be hard to survive in baseball.

How about the umpires?  How do you handle the umpires?

Their job is just as tough. You hear guys yell at them sometimes, but that’s just being a ball player. If you don’t think it’s a strike or you don’t think you were out at a base, it’s just baseball. It’s stuff that happens. You really don’t hate them, but you really don’t try to give in and be too nice, so that way when the same situation comes up and you’re yelling at him and he’s like “Well, I thought we was close.” You just go out there and play, try to keep to yourself and that’s it.

What about knockdowns, brush backs, and retaliation?

Sometimes, yes.  But when pitchers throw around the head, I think that’s a little scary at the upper levels because you’ve got guys throwing the ball real hard now, splitting helmets and still giving people concussions. When you’re throwing from the chest or the shoulders down, I think it’s a good pitch. You have to keep hitters honest, but when it’s from the neck up, I think it’s dangerous.

Do you have any thoughts on being traded?

I’ve been traded here from the Rockies. When I got traded here, I didn’t know how to take it but it worked out for the best.

What would you tell a kid in high school about professional baseball?

Being that I came out of high school, if you’re a player that you know you’re going to get drafted, you know you want to sign, you have to, once again like I was saying, have the heart for it. You don’t really get mental until you get older, but you have to have the heart to play because you’re away from home and you’ve got different coaches telling you this, telling you that, and then you’ve got players telling you. You have to have the heart for it to go through the good times and the bad times.

Anything else we didn’t cover about baseball that you would tell someone?

The heart and the mind, that’s their the strongest part.