Koyie Hill Chicago Cubs (8/24/2003)

What’s your baseball philosophy?  What got you so far?

Just playing hard, I think, because I didn’t know any other way. Sometimes you don’t really understand the game until later on in your career.  You just play it because you have a lot of fun at it and I think that’s what carried me through is believing in myself, knowing that I can play, and just go out there and not hold anything back. I wouldn’t say balls to the walls, I’m sure there’s a better way of saying it but that’s probably how we went out there.

What is your hitting philosophy when you go to the plate?

Aggressiveness, that’s all. The only thing I want to do is be in a good position to hit and be aggressive with it.

What are your strengths right now?

My strengths?  I don’t know.  I think being a switch hitter and being able to run a little bit. Especially in the national league it will keep me from being double switched for.

Now, pitchers go inside and outside and, of course being a catcher obviously, you go inside and outside to set up the hitters.  Do the hitters set up pitchers?

I think unintentionally. You may get a guy every now and then that will kind of trick you and lull you to sleep a little bit thinking that he’s not going to hurt you. I think more than not a hitter may be looking for one pitch and looks really bad on it and you throw it again and that’s the pitch he’s looking for the next time and he drills it.  So I’d say more than not, unintentionally.

As a catcher, do you see that?  Do you have a tendency to go back to that pitch?

I don’t know.  I’ve always gone off like a feel. Situational stuff obviously is kind of predictable, but I kind of have a feel or a sense of what’s going on as soon as the guy gets into the box from expressions and how our pitcher is working is kind of how I call the game.

It seems at times, that they say this guy has all the talent in the world but doesn’t seem to go as far as guys with lesser talent.  Do you think that’s true?

Oh, yeah, definitely.  There are always a lot of guys that are in the right spot at the right time, and there’s a lot of guys that are just sitting around waiting for something to happen. A guy can work once a week and be as good as a guy who works five times a week but in the end it’ll be the guy be working hard five times a week because you know what you’re going to get.

Do you think the first round of draft picks or high draft picks get more chances?

I think they have to. You got a lot more invested like you do with anything else. It’s like when you have an expensive house and a not so expensive house, you’re going to take better care of the more expensive one and show it off more. You’re not going to invite people over to the other one or the bad one.  Same thing with cars and stuff, if you got a Mercedes you’re going to drive it around and show it off and give it a lot of chances.  That’s about how I see it as players, too.

When it comes to spring training, there’s a lot of guys who are catchers.  They’re all talented and they’re trading and bringing people in to compete for your spot.  How do you handle that?  How do you approach that?

Oh, I don’t know.  It’s just like anything else. You go out and play baseball the same way whether you’re on a little league field or a big league field, I feel like.  You don’t get caught up in it too much. I think as long as you’re getting treated right as far as getting treated fairly, and then you have nothing to complain about.  You’re out there trying to earn a job nothing’s ever secured. You don’t take anything for granted because it could be gone tomorrow.  That’s kind of how you have to look at it. A lot of times a lot of guys waste a lot of time being bitter about stuff and that’s not really the way to go about it, I don’t think.  When you get in there, you play hard.  When you get your chance, you take advantage of your opportunity.

What are some of the things about pro baseball you learned the hard way that nobody told you about?

Probably, the politically correctness of it all. I’d say being quiet; use your ears a little bit more than when playing the game. You might have to say one thing and keep something to yourself just because it’ll make something better. Not always trying to necessarily win, I don’t mean the game, I mean as a catcher when catchers and pitchers disagree, it’s not that important to win my argument as it is to make everything better.  I think that kind of sets in later on.

How much does the chemistry in the clubhouse affect the team?

It could go both ways. You could have a bunch of guys that are on the same page on the field that could really care less about each other off the field but it’s very rare but I’ve seen it happen.  A lot of the times when you got guys out there that you care about and that you want to do good for, selfishness goes out the window. You want to do this for that guy, you want to pick this guy up or you want it for this coach or this manager or this team unit.  It plays a huge part into it. You could have guys out there with no talent but they’re trying so hard for the other guy, it comes through. The other side of the coin, you could have a lot of players out there that know how to play the game and could really care less about each other.

How important is weight lifting?

More important to some than others. I’ve seen guys who were in the weight room all the time and I’ve seen guys who go twice a month. It kind of depends on your mentality of it. A lot of guys stay in shape in a lot of different ways.  I’ve seen a lot of guys that eat really good and don’t go to the weight room and I’ve seen guys that go to the weight room all the time and eat whatever they want. So it’s kind of whatever type of lifestyle you like.  Myself, I go to the weight room a couple times a week. As a catcher you don’t want to do too much because you get pretty much the brunt of all the physical activity out there. So you want to pace yourself but you don’t want to overdo it.  So I think it just kind of depends on the player.

Do you read the scouting reports about you?

No.  I don’t really pay much attention to it.  If somebody brings it to my attention, something positive or something you might look at it. You kind of always have to throw it out the window because you never really know exactly where they’re getting their information. It could be something they heard from somebody. It could have been one of my family members telling them I was the greatest player in the world, or the worst.

How do you handle the fans, people yelling and stuff?

It doesn’t bother me because you got to get to the point where you can focus above it all. I think that it can wear on a team. We had an incident in Las Vegas where the visiting team was getting ripped on pretty good. They were having a losing streak and then what happened at the time led to an altercation. It’s always better to be a little bit smarter about what you say and what you do. Normal riding or saying something is fine. Every now and then it’s okay but if you’re just constantly, constantly, constantly yelling nobody likes that. Nobody in the stands likes it either let alone the players. Half the time the players don’t hear you, so you’re just making it a bad time for everybody else.

How about the umpires?  How do you handle the umpires?  Just balls and strikes and stuff, how do you get your point across?

I usually have a pretty good relationship with the umpires. I’m not a guy who says a whole lot and usually at this level if they miss one, they’ll say it. They’re not too proud to do that and you respect that about them. It gets to where it opens the door up to say, “where did you have that ball, was it a little off?” I’m going to say okay.  I thought maybe we could have got it but we’ll work on it or whatever. A lot of it has to do with getting a little umpire rhythm going where you’re throwing the ball around the plate, around your spot, and you get this guy calling strikes and then you can get a bit more, If you’re all over the place and all of a sudden you throw one kind of borderline and he calls it a ball, there’s not a whole lot you can do about it anyway. There’s a little bit of a gray area but not much. All we want the guy to do is call it consistently. For the most part, they’ve been okay.  They’ve been pretty good and they have been pretty easy to work with.

How about knockdowns, brush backs for retaliation?  What do you think about that?

Well, I think you need a pitching inside. I think the situation will always dictate that. That’s just a age old question of baseball. You can’t say when somebody does something like show up a pitcher or whatever. You got guys dancing and pointing fingers to the sky or all over the place when they strike somebody out. Then when somebody gets a home run off of them and they watch it for awhile they get all angry and stuff.  It’s both sides of the coin, both sides get angry and then somebody gets hit. I think there’s different ways to get your point across but sometimes, I guess they feel like there’s nothing else that there is to do besides knock somebody down or what have you. I think you just kind of step back, look at the situation, kind of assess it and say does it call for it? What would come from it? Would it matter?  If I drill this guy, is it going to change the outcome of the game or anything?  So I don’t know.

Any thoughts of being traded?

There’s a little bit around the deadline and there’s some rumors flying around but like I said earlier, whether it’s a little league field or a big league field, you’re going to go play. This isn’t the only organization in the world. I’d love to be a Dodger, I was drafted by them, I would love to play for them and that’s where my interests are.  My heart is in major league baseball and that’s 30 different teams including this one. I don’t think it would be that big of a turnaround. I’m still playing baseball and if you’re playing baseball that’s all you can ask for.

What do you tell a kid in high school on down about professional baseball?

I’d say be ready to do it. You got to be willing. It’s not like high school baseball or it’s not like anything you’ve ever done before.  It’s a job it’s every day. My brother is a senior in high school now and he’s being highly recruited and has a chance to do that. My advice to him, and he’s been around me in around all-star games and when they come visit and stuff, is ask him if he’d like to do this every day? He said, yeah.  I’d say, well I mean this is every day.  This is something that you’re going to have to decide whether you want to do it every day or something that you want to kind of get better at before you do it and grow up a little bit and have some fun. It’s hard.  I came out of college but still the everyday grind is tough and you’re more mature but I can only imagine doing it out of high school. You’re going out there every day, it’s hot, you’re screwing up and you’re hitting .200, you’re thinking about college then. I don’t want anybody to put the cart before the horse.