No fears about all this fun
Cubs, Bryant don’t think side ventures will hurt him in Year 2
ANAHEIM, Calif. — One Sunday in late March, long after the Cubs had finished playing, Kris Bryant joined a group on the field in the fading light. They filmed, with small cameras, what looked like playground and party tricks, including Bryant at one point putting his forehead on the knob of a stood-up bat and spinning himself in circles, then staggering away.
“It was an endorsement thing,” he said. “Stouffer’s.”
Yes, the TV dinner people. It wasn’t a commercial, exactly — more of a promotional video, with the Dude Perfect trick/stunt artists of YouTube fame.
Bryant, the second-year third baseman who filmed a Red Bull commercial before he ever took a swing in the big leagues, did another Red Bull shoot this spring at an area junior college and filmed at least one MLB commercial with teammate Anthony Rizzo. And he does more as part of his deals with a clothier and athletic shoe company.
“I’m always open to opportunities — I enjoy that stuff,” Bryant said. “It’s cool to get out there and do something different. You focus on baseball too much, you go crazy. It’s fun for me. For some guys, it doesn’t work.”
But when does cool and fun and diversion become too much? When do the trappings and pulls from all directions after the Rookie of the Year honor and sudden national fame become distractions?
And do those things feed into the debated concept of the “sophomore jinx”? Two decades ago, after win- ning the batting title in his first full year in the majors, a young Alex Rodriguez showed up to Seattle Mariners spring training admitting he was exhausted from an offseason full of new opportunities and distractions. He still grinded out a strong season, though not nearly at the level of the year before, or most that came after.
“I don’t even notice it,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said of Bryant’s diversions. “Whenever you see him around here, his focus is so good, his work is so spectacular, he’s full of energy. I think he does balance things extremely well. So from my perspective, it’s kind of seamless what he does between off and on the field.”
Maddon even raves about how much better Bryant’s swing looks now after an adjustment he and hitting coach John Mallee made last summer to lessen an extreme uppercut that was causing Bryant to swing and miss at pitches in the strike zone.
“It’s a new and improved version of KB this year,” Maddon said. “And it’s just going to keep getting better.”
Which could keep the endorsements rolling at full steam.
“It’s definitely not a challenge for me,” Bryant said. “I make sure I devote my time to certain areas. And that stuff ’s fun for me. If it wasn’t fun for me, then I could see where it could affect me in terms of on the field. But I enjoy that stuff. It helps me take my mind off the stresses that are on the field. Sometimes it’s just exhausting, so it’s important for me to get out there and do something different and have fun with it.”
Besides, he added, “I say no plenty of times.”
Bryant’s agent, Scott Boras, has an entire marketing arm of his business that helps clients such as Bryant with endorsement matchmaking and the balancing act with baseball. But Bryant figures he’s already ahead of the game on finding that balance after spending three years at the University of San Diego.
“College was way harder than this,” Bryant said. “Balancing time between study hall and school, and then practice at 5 a.m. and then 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and figuring out time to do your homework and study and projects, and meet up with your groups — there was so much more in terms of time management in college.
“I’m glad I went there, because if I didn’t, then I don’t know how I’d handle my time.”