My Boy Troy: Tulo at Peace with Toronto
Bob Nightengale, of USA TODAY, wrote a very revealing piece about Troy Tulowitzki.
Here are some things I learned:
Tulo spent the evening of July 27th in Wrigley Field's visiting manager's office, screaming at Rockies' GM Walt Weiss after being informed of the big trade. Tulo had requested being kept up to date with any plans to move him and that did not happen. He screamed.
“All I wanted was to be informed, and not be caught off-guard,’’ Tulowitzki said, “and I was caught off-guard. They always told me, “Hey, we’re going to inform you. You’re going to know exactly what’s going on. If anything were ever to get close, we’ll let you know.’
Tulo says he believes in forgiveness, but I'm not so sure:
“I’ll never talk to him, never talk to those people,’’ Tulowitzki told USA TODAY Sports. “You get lied to, straight to your face, you get upset. I believe in forgiveness, but at the same time, I don’t plan on being friendly with them, or anything like that.’’
Tulo believes things happen for a reason:
“I thought at one point in my career it would be neat to stay with one team. But now that this has happened to me, and I get to play with all of these great ballplayers, I think there’s a reason why this happened. Hopefully, at the end of the day, we can do something special here, and win a World Series, and really, the picture will come together.’’
That's last year's hashtag, Troy. Try to keep up.
Tulo likes the somewhat shitty facilities in Dunedin, and that, in its own way, is kind of awesome.
“I like this place a lot better than Arizona. That place was like a country club. Guys got comfortable because it was so nice. This place has a better feel. It reminds you of spring training. The way it’s supposed to be.’’
He's spartan, this one. Not comfy means it's time to work. As it should be. Stringent and rigorous.
Tulo doesn't want to talk to babies anymore:
“You look around here and there are some great players in this locker room. It’s different than in Colorado where I was leaned upon so heavily. Now, I’m just another guy. I enjoy that.
“The biggest difference is that I don’t feel like a teacher anymore. Over there, there was a lot of young guys. The young guys were scared to walk around. I was trying to teach these guys how to handle themselves, instead of just going out there and playing the game the right way, playing the game to win. Here, we got so many veterans, it makes everyone relax.
“I enjoy not getting all of those questions now.’’
Troy, you are allowed one "play the game the right way" before I call you out on it. This is your one.
Tulo, who used to spend Spring Training in Arizona's Cactus League, now finds himself in Florida's Grapefruit League. He's rented Evan Longoria's house and has a pretty fantastic roommate.
Donaldson is living in his home so they can talk even more baseball away from the park.
Even more baseball. EVEN MORE.
Frank Gunn
Ken Rosenthal expanded a bit on this relationship, which is now my new obsession.
“He (Donaldson) brings it every single day. You have no choice,” Tulowitzki said. “He doesn’t let anybody get complacent. That’s what leaders do. That’s the reason he was the best player in the game last year. He brought it on a nightly basis. He likes to be outgoing. He likes to be loud. But he can back it up. When you can do that, you can do whatever you want, really.”
“We became close. We both love the game of baseball. We love competing. He does it almost better than anybody I’ve ever played with, to be honest. You want him on your team. He might be that guy on the other team that irks you. But you love taking the field with him. He gets the best out of me.”
Donaldson said he was unaware that Tulo felt so uncomfortable and bitter about how the trade went down because Tulo didn't talk about it.
“Obviously, inside, he felt differently.”
And sometimes when we touch, the honesty's too much and I have to close my eyes and hide.
Donaldson estimates they called each other three times a week in the off season.
“I love him. He’s one of my best friends on the team,” Donaldson said. “He’s a guy you want on the team. He’s a guy who is a competitor. What’s special about him is that he’s a five-time All-Star, a franchise player, yet he’s still one of those guys who still wants to learn and get better. You don’t see that in a lot of guys who are already ‘the guy.’ ”
I'm ready for this to be a reality show set in Tulo's house with Donaldson as his house guest and wacky high jinks ensue. Donaldson will be loud and Tulo will talk about his feelings. Clutch Colabello can come visit.
Puppies & @bluejays , what a PERFECT day!! 🐶💙 #ClutchColabello #FrenchBulldog #LifeIsBeautiful #IAmGrateful #EntertainmentCity
A photo posted by TK (@tanya_kim1) on Feb 29, 2016 at 12:13pm PST
The show will be called "My Boy Troy."
Both pictures are from Frank Gunn's Twitter feed.