Chapman to honor late friend with jersey
CHICAGO — Players’ Weekend nicknames can be wacky. Josh Phegley was PTBNL, for instance. Or basic: Jed Lowrie was “Jed” when licensing concerns nixed “Jedi.”
Matt Chapman, however, chose a touching nickname for the back of his jersey during the Aug. 2425 series against the Giants: The A’s third baseman will wear “Hurtado” to honor his late Cal State Fullerton teammate, Nick Hurtado, a lefthanded pitcher who died of bone cancer in 2013 at age 21.
“He was a really good friend and I know it was his dream to play in the major leagues, and he never got that opportunity,” Chapman said. “So I figured it would be the best was to represent him, and he’ll get to have his name on a bigleague jersey and play a game in the big leagues in a sense.”
Chapman said that Hurtado went through treatment two times before his cancer returned for a third time. “He was always positive, he liked to have fun, you’d never hear a bad thing about him,” Chapman said. “Very caring, very thoughtful. I think we’re all better people because of him.”
When it comes time to don the jersey, Chapman said it will be emotional “but it will also make me proud. I just want to go out there and be on the field for him.”
Chapman was “Chappy” last year, and he put more thought into it this time. “I wanted to do something meaningful,” he said, “and I thought this was the best way to do it . ... I figured this one was 10 times better. More than 10 times.”
Among the more notable A’s nicknames this time around: Marco Estrada is “Ponch” (like “CHiPs” star Erik Estrada), and Mike Fiers is, of course, “Smokey.” Replay system fixed: The replayreview system wasn’t functioning at Wrigley Field on Monday. A’s videoreview coordinator Adam Rhoden said he had only the regular TV to monitor, and was watching like a fan at home — so both teams were able to request unlimited crewchief reviews.
According to Rhoden, Major League Baseball sent someone from New York for repairs Tuesday and the system was back up and running before the game. Briefly: Cubs outfielder Nicholas Castellanos said he’d run into Fiers, his former Detroit teammate, on Tuesday. The A’s starter asked him how he’d hit a pitch from Chris Bassitt that was in the opposite batter’s box out the other way in the first inning Monday. “I don’t know,” Castellanos said with a laugh . ... The resumption of the A’s May 19 game at Detroit will start at 5:15 p.m. Sept. 6 at the Coliseum; nevertheless, Oakland will wear home uniforms in that game, which was suspended with the A’s leading 53 and no outs in the bottom of the seventh. The regularly scheduled game that day will begin at 7:07 p.m. or, if later than that, 30 minutes after the completion of the suspended game.