My favorite Brave too. I have an autographed picture and a poster of Javy. Class act.. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Sign in. Log into your account. Forgot your password? Password recovery. Recover your password. Get help. Friday, November 12, Newsletter Sign Up. Home Features Catching up with Javy Lopez.
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And if I was going to do it, do it with the Giants and kind of get coached by the best in the business. Kuiper and Mike Krukow often spent their time together as teammates on the Giants sitting side by side in the dugout calling the action. One of the issues that plagued Lopez throughout the season was a contentious divorce and the fear that Lopez might become estranged from his two sons.
He was at a crucial juncture in his career. Lopez was 32 years old and played a position in which players do not typically age gracefully. He had come off a dismal season, and faced the realization that the Braves had recently acquired their supposed catcher of the future in Johnny Estrada. Long gone were the All-Star campaigns of and , and the postseason heroics of the mids.
The reality was that Lopez was a hit-first catcher with some pop who no longer could hit — or at least that was what the baseball world believed. Lopez heard the critics, and in many regards he agreed with their assessment of the state of his game. Lopez entered the season with a new mental approach and a revamped conditioning program. No longer the flabby pound catcher eating everything in sight, he was a lean pounder who lifted weights multiple times per week instead of once or twice a month, the regimen he followed in previous seasons.
Lopez even created some doubt on his new physique with interviews in which he was a little too coy about the subject. But the fact remains that Lopez showed tremendous results from his lifestyle changes, regardless of how they were obtained, and slugged his way to an incredible season.
Even the noticeable focus on his diet and conditioning did not create immediate benefits. Also, Lopez opened his stance a bit, and began to reap the benefits. He made consistent and hard contact. Lopez established the major-league record for home runs by a catcher, 42 one of his home runs came via a pinch-hit against the Mets in July.
He played in his third and final All-Star Game he was the starting catcher for the National League and was poised to cash in on his success in the coming free-agency period.
But all of this success still did not mean that Lopez would be catching one of the best pitchers of his generation, Greg Maddux. Attempting to explain why the most talented catcher on the roster was not catching Maddux, arguably the best pitcher in the league, article after article was published suggesting that, at least at some level, there was a rift between the two. Both players downplayed the drama, but every time Maddux toed the rubber and Lopez was not behind the plate, there would be a comment or question about it.
In fact, between September 8, , and September 28, , if Lopez caught a pitch from Maddux, it was because Lopez entered the game late as a pinch-hitter, and manager Bobby Cox did not want to remove his ace pitcher from the game just yet.
So, on paper at least, it seemed as if the two players could coexist in the same game. Eddie Perez was a longtime backup catcher with the Braves and personal favorite of Maddux; he also downplayed the rift. Perez said a player knowing when he would get to play or have a day off was important for staying mentally sharp throughout the grind of the long season, and Maddux was able to provide this for two players, Lopez and his backup, each season.
It just seemed to be regarded as certain that Lopez was not going to be catching Maddux, regardless of the magnitude of the situation. He wondered if the Braves could have won even more if he had caught Maddux, and he wondered how much more gaudy his own season would have been with the added at-bats from catching Maddux on a consistent basis. After his dominant , Lopez did test the free-agency waters and landed in Baltimore, which was attempting to revamp its offense.
Lopez played in a career-high games, and batted. It was easily his second best season in the majors. Despite his impressive stats, Lopez was on a losing team for the first time in his career and watched the postseason from home, but at least he was not watching alone. On June 23, , he married his second wife, Gina.
He played in 18 uneventful games before being released in September. Lopez was re-entering the free-agency pool with much less luster than in his previous free-agency campaigns. Lopez signed with the Colorado Rockies but was released before the season began. He tried a comeback with the Braves in spring training in , but decided to retire when it became evident that he just could not hit the ball the way he once did and he was reassigned to the minor-league camp. Lopez retired with a career batting average of.
He had played on 11 division winners, and had that magical season when he set the season record for home runs by a catcher.
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