Cubs
Glad to be home
Despite hoopla, Bryant relishes playing in Vegas
Bryant will have considerably less privacy Saturday and Sunday when he makes his annual visit to Cashman Field, where the Cubs will play the Reds.
“The demands, especially for this Vegas trip, are pretty big, and I'm opening it up too,” said Bryant, who received permission to travel from Phoenix on Thursday night ahead of his teammates. “I want people who mean the most to me to come to both games and support me.
“I realize those two games are going to be pretty crazy, (but) I'm fully ready to embrace it. I love my city of Vegas, and they've done so much for me, so I can suck it up for two days and take it all in.”
Despite the craziness expected over the return of the 2016 National League Most Valuable Player, Bryant is eager to be home for a few days after a whirlwind offseason that didn't start until early November and was followed by his wedding two months later and a trip to New York to accept his MVP award before he headed to spring training three weeks after that.
“It works out perfectly to spend some time with my family before the craziness of the season starts and spend time in our new house that we only spent a few weeks (in) before spring training,” Bryant said. “It was pretty intense to keep our heads on straight and not go crazy with the commitments we had and the amount of time we had to do them.”
The postgame scene at Cashman Field, however, often turns into a reunion for Bryant family members as well as friends from Bonanza High School, which Bryant and his wife attended.
Bryant is appreciative that his wife, his father, Mike, and his mother, Susie, help direct many of the social requests with ticket assistance from Cubs traveling secretary Vijay Tekchandani.
“They do a great job of taking the pressure off me so I can just go out there and answer everyone's questions and play in the game,” Bryant said.
Bryant has put a spring training emphasis on hitting more to the opposite field.
He hit an opposite-field home run off Raul Alcantara of the Athletics on March 12 at HoHoKam Park but was more delighted Friday after hitting a changeup from Tommy Kahnle of the White Sox for a two-run single in a 7-3 win.
“That might be better than hitting a home run to right field because I've struggled with right-on-right changeups,” Bryant said. “I've swung through a lot of them.
“To be able to stay back and hit one to right field instead of left field shows me that I'm getting used to seeing those pitches and staying back on them.”
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