9/12 900 hits and counting
You don’t see 900 hits celebrated on ESPN or anything like when a guy gets his 1,000th hit. If you put it in perspective, 3,000 hits is a Hall of Fame career. Half of that — 1,500 hits — is a big goal of mine, especially considering where I started. I wasn’t sure after my rookie year going into my second year, when I lost my job, if I was ever going to be a starting outfielder again. To have 900 hits is huge. One thousand is a great career. If I get 1,500, that means I haven’t slowed down at all and that would be real nice.
I think the fans have to understand that getting hits in baseball isn’t easy, staying in the big leagues isn’t easy. I’ve been designated for assignment and placed on waivers. I’m going to keep going to see how many I end up with. I didn’t get the game ball. You get the ball on your 1,000th hit, 1,500th, 2,000th, 2,500th. I’ll work toward 1,000 next year and get that ball.
— Marlon
The Byrd's Nest 
Congratulations, Marlon!
This Cubs’ fan appreciates how difficult it is to hit in the big leagues and much less keep a job there. Your accomplishment of 900 hits is, indeed, a job well done. I hope that you keep it going for years to come. You are definitely one of the bright spots this year. It has been a pleasure to watch you play. Thanks for the effort and hard work.
Marlon,
CONGRATS! That is an awesome accomplishment. I sincerely hope you get number 1000 with the Cubs. I, for one, appreciate the hustle and 100% you give every game, thank YOU for being a great example for all players.
I concur with both posts above Marlon, you have been one of the successes of the season with the Cubs and certainly shown that you come to work and give your all EVERY day…unlike some others that shall remain nameless (they know who they are!)
Marlon; you have been a bright spot shinning in a dismal year for the north-siders. Not every year can be a good one but it sure has been fun watching you play. Thanks for coming to Chicago and playing for our team; Go Cubs!
Great job man. You are easily my new favorite player. Thank you for going out there everyday and giving 100% for the struggling Cubs. You, along with players like the Riot and D-lee(I hate that they had to be traded), are why fans such as myself stick by the Cubbies through the rough years such as this one. Anyways Congrats and i hope to see 900 more in the Cubs uniform!
Congrats!!!!
I’m a season ticket holder, to watch your hustle day in and day out has been a pleasure. Keep bustin’ down that first base line like you always do and 1500 hits will be here before you know it.
http://wrigleyregular.mlblogs.com/
I am SO PROUD of you Marlon-man!! Way to go on all of you accomplishments this year as a Cub. You are one of the bright stars on our team. I love to watch you play & cheer for you every time you come onto the field! You are my favorite.. Keep up the wonderful work! I can’t wait to see you again next year….Enjoy the rest of this season. Love ya….. Sheryl & Sam
Way to go, Marlon! So glad to have you here. Looking forward to 1k next year.
Marlon great job on 900. you wil get 1000 in no time. i have been cubs fan long time and im glad the cubs signed you. i know it was rough year and every oe tried hard i guess it just one of those things. I was on softball league this yr and had key players out and we stunk it up even though we gave 100% it is not easy i played ball years back so i feel ya. glad team kept heads up & playing great hope it continues next year. Quade has done an awesome job. thanks for your 110% on the field go get em.
Marlon, as a life-long Cubs fan, I was glad when I heard the Cubs signed you. You confirmed that this year with your great play, enthusiasm, hustle and consistency. Hope to see you on in the starting line up next year. Well done.
Hey Marlon!
I just wanted to say that you’re such a class act! Signing autographs during a rain delay is such a classy thing to do, and when I first heard that you did it, I was not surprised! You are a pleasure to watch on the field and you are a tremendous human being off the field, and I think I speak for all Cubs fans when I say that we appreciate everything you’ve done and that we hope that you remain a Cub forever! No matter what, you will always be a Cub, and you will always be loved and remembered by Cubs fans!
Keep it up Marlon….THE BYRD IS THE WORD!!!!
Hi Marlon!
Ok, here’s the situation…I’m thinking that you don’t read my comments. But here’s a really cool situation…a bunch of other people do! Some of them read them and scratch their heads and say “uhh…what?”.
Marlon, 900 hits is a lot of hits, but it’s not a milestone. It’s more like a mile post. I mean, I’m only at 87 hits in my slow pitch softball career so I’m not degrading your accomplishment at all, but let’s find a more interesting subject matter. How about just the day to day activities of a Major League Baseball player? Tell us about the restaurants and the travel and the bumps and bruises.
I’ll tell you about what I did on Saturday. I woke up early because my brother-in-law Andy’s and my sister-in-law Tara’s daughter (name withheld) stayed the night. That meant a houseful of kids up early. I didn’t mind because it was time to get up to make breakfast. Well, Marlon, my wife Taela had told me that we were basically out of Bisquick so I told the kids I was going to make bacon, eggs and hash browns (out of last night’s tater tots). My daughter (name withheld) didn’t want anything but pancakes so she went to my sister-in-law Tasia and asked her for some. Turns out, we had Bisquick all along so I was off the hook! No cheffy for me!
Next, the girls got dressed up to go to ballet and I took my son to Home Depot to do man things. My sister-in-law Tasia and my sister-in-law Brittany took the girls to ballet and then Oktoberfest (Germans spell funny) but my wife Taela was at work. My sister-in-law Tara was running a 10k (I don’t know why, Marlon, some people really enjoy running). We ran into Mrs. Mallay (my son’s old teacher even though she’s young) and my former pastor and baseball coach Russ at Home Depot. It was cool.
I hooked up the new dryer and then was late getting to my son’s soccer game. His team crushed the other team, but we don’t keep score. We’ll call it a 7-1 tie, Marlon.
Then we went to lunch at Libby’s and then we went to the Antique Mall and had ice cream at the soda fountain there. Then we went to the arcade and then I was exhausted. It was time to go home for a nap and that’s what I did.
Well, Marlon, it turned out that the reason the dryer wasn’t drying was that the duct was all clogged with dryer lint. I realized this a little after 2:00 am. I went down under the house in the crawl space and got a headful of spider webs and just went to town fixing that thing. I had to dismantle it all, clean it and put it all back together. It felt good when it all worked again…at 3:20 am.
Marlon, my brother-in-law Andy and I both got out in the bottom of the 7th in a game we lost 17-16. We really let the team down. Fortunately for us, they let us down too by being terrible at defense. Then, this past Monday, we really took a dump all over the wet field. Don’t worry, I told everyone how crappy we played. I thnk they appreciated it.
Marlon, I guess the one thing we can hang our hat on is that we’re playing better than our favorite Major League team played most of this season. And that’s something.
I hope you can come play in our last couple games in October. They’re Monday nights. You can play Left Center.
Keithman
Congrats on the 900! I know even more than the hits though, the enthusiasm and defense in Center Field you bring to this club is particularly invaluable. The range up the middle of the field is even more valuable than at Shortstop, and has been something we’ve needed since Corey Patterson left (Edmonds was good, just not that good).
One thing I will say though, your batting stance worries me a bit. You have such amazing bat speed you get away with very little use of the legs, but can also make you prone to rolling over on the ball and hitting weak grounders to the left side too.
While it’s good to use a minimal trigger and foot movement, the feet are so close together, it looks like you barely use the legs at all, just all arm-swinging. Pujols’ stance on the other hand has legs even too with a minimal stride, but the legs seem to be more into the swing, spread more apart.
Anyway, just a thought. I know I use a longer bat, 36 inches, to slow my swing down for timing reasons, so the bat speed is probably what led you to adopt a minimalist hitting stance I’m guessing, with such late feet movement, to avoid getting too far out in front of the ball. It’s certainly a lot of variables, but just looking at replays it does seem like the lower body is less into the swing than for most hitters.
Hey Marlon, I know you’ll break the 1,000 hit mark this season ! No doubt you’ll get at least 350 at bats or maybe even 400 so the numbers are on your side. I predict that you start opening day with a homer ! To start you on your way.