Fox finally gets a shot with Cubs

CHICAGO – Morning at Wrigley Field. The groundskeepers are relaxing in the dugout, and most players are still inside, working on crossword puzzles and their first cups of coffee.

For Jake Fox(notes), sweat cascading off his bald head like the fountain in Grant Park, class is in session. He is at third base, a position that he'd never played before spring training, while Chicago Cubs coach Ivan DeJesus, the former shortstop, slapped ground balls his way with a fungo bat, offering suggestions when a ball scooted under Fox's backhand or skipped off the heel of his glove. Soon, DeJesus would be joined by another coach and ex-shortstop, Alan Trammell, who provided more counsel.

Jake Fox batted .423 and had 17 home runs, 50 RBIs and 40 runs while in Triple-A.

(Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

"Let me grab some water and a dry shirt,'' Fox said back in the clubhouse a few minutes later, after his tutorial had ended. "Although I can put on a dry shirt and it still won't matter.''

Jake Fox was called up to the Cubs this week. There wasn't anyone in the minor leagues putting up better numbers at the plate. Playing for the Iowa Cubs, Chicago's Triple-A team in Des Moines, Fox was batting .423. He had 17 home runs, 50 RBIs and 40 runs. All of those numbers led the Pacific Coast League.

"Our general manager said he'd give money to anyone who was named player of the week,'' Fox said. "I won twice. It was great. Better dinners for sure, and it allowed me to stay in my own hotel room on a couple of road trips.''

But as much as he appreciated the upgrades, Fox had a different promotion in mind, the same one that prompted him to walk into Lou Piniella's office in the spring of 2007, the manager's first with the Cubs. Fox was a catcher then, and was in big-league camp, but after two weeks of games, he was the only guy who hadn't gotten into a game.

Fox walked into the manager's office. No trepidations?

"My father always told me,'' Fox said, "that if you have an issue with somebody, you talk to him about it. I always wondered why players were scared to talk to their managers. Most managers I've played for welcomed it. They wanted to know what their players were thinking.''

Fox came straight to the point. I want a chance to show you what I can do, he said, and I can't do that unless you put me in a game. I don't want you to evaluate me based on what you've read in somebody else's reports.

Piniella's response? OK, kid, you're playing tomorrow.

"You could almost hear in the tone of his voice, 'Who is this little punk coming in and talking to me about this?' '' Fox said. "It was like, 'Fine, you're going to get what you want. Let's see if you want what you're going to get.'''

Fox played the next day and doubled and homered. He hit a home run the next day. He wasn't close to making the team, but when the Cubs needed some help that summer, he was called up.

But Fox, an Indiana kid drafted in the third round by the Cubs in 2003 out of the University of Michigan, was a man without a position. The Cubs decided he wasn't going to cut it as a catcher, the position he'd been playing since he was 10. They tried him in the corner outfield spots and at first base.

And they pretty much forgot about him in 2008, when he spent the whole season in the minors.

"I had some serious questions last year about whether they wanted me here or not,'' he said.

Fox had another good spring this year, driving in 16 runs, but was a late cut. He figured he'd be spending the summer in Des Moines. "They had the team they wanted, and it was a pretty darn good team,'' he said. "There wasn't room for me.''

But then the season began, and Fox hit. And hit. And the Cubs had injury after injury, the biggest coming when All-Star third baseman Aramis Ramirez(notes) dislocated his left shoulder. The Cubs looked to their system for help. They called up a career minor leaguer, infielder Bobby Scales(notes). Fox went into the office of Des Moines manager Bobby Dickerson.

I'm not here to complain about Scales' call-up, he said. He deserves it. I'm here to ask you a question: What more do I have to do here so that the next time they call for help, they ask for me?

Dickerson told him to keep doing what he was doing, that it was just a case of Fox not playing the position where the Cubs needed help. Fox wasn't satisfied. Let me play third base, he pleaded. "I'd rather go down swinging,'' he said, "than scared.''

Dickerson began giving him some work there, and then, with the Cubs front office signing off on the move, finally played him a game at third in Colorado Springs. That was a week and a half ago. Meanwhile the Cubs went into a funk, losing eight in a row.

GM Jim Hendry made some changes. One was to call up Fox, who hit an RBI pinch double in his first at-bat Wednesday, singled as a pinch-hitter Thursday, then found himself playing third base in the ninth inning of a tight game against the Dodgers. That was the first time he'd been there since the one game in Colorado Springs.

You know how they say the ball always finds the man? With a runner on first, Mark Loretta(notes) hit a grounder to third. "Was I nervous making that play?'' Fox said the next morning. "Hell, yeah, I was.''

Fox forced Matt Kemp(notes) at second. He had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth, but struck out to end the game. On Friday, however, he delivered another pinch single and scored what proved to be the winning run in a 2-1 win.

When the Cubs played the Dodgers on national TV Saturday afternoon, Fox remained on the bench. He is stuck in that same netherworld as players like Jack Cust(notes) and Sam Horn, big minor-league bats whose defensive shortcomings leave them with marginal employment opportunities. Fox had jokingly alluded to that when asked upon his arrival in Chicago what had taken so long. "I'm short, fat and I'm fighting against maybe some athleticism issues,'' he said.

But it is a fight he will not abandon.

"Am I the best third baseman on this team?'' he said. "Hell, no. I'd be the first to tell you that. But I'm going to play hard enough that I feel I can make up for it, and swing the bat well enough to keep me in there.

"I'm a very strong-willed, stubborn person. That's what got me here. I've always been a high risk, high reward. That's the way I play. All or nothing.''