Chicago Cubs: Three Kris Bryant fun facts you might not know

Chicago Cubs: Kris Bryant takes his work home

Bryant, of course, doesn’t have much choice these days with all the isolation and quarantining going on, and just like players from high school to the Show, he has to practice at home as Cubs Talk tweeted recently. These days, players know the value of setting up training right at home. At least that’s what my varsity high school 16-year-old conned me into when he got me to set up our home for his baseball training.

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I guess you could say I am fortunate to live in an all-year outdoor climate area very similar to Las Vegas like Bryant grew up in. There are some basics that you have to have to practice baseball in your home or if you’re interested in messing around with it during the national ‘stay at home’ order.

If you’re a pitcher, then you’re going to need an elevated mound and 60 feet, 6 inches of clear space to your plate, or pitching net. These days they sell nets that are broken up into quadrants so you can develop your pitching aim.

If your focus is crushing the ball like Bryant than you’re going to need space for that as well.  My son’s hitting cage had to go in our backyard because our garage didn’t have a ten-foot-high clearing in the ceiling area, which is optimal for setting up a practice cage. His cage is made out of plastic plumbing pipes and is about 12 feet high, and 12×12 all around. Bryant’s, of course, looks professional and custom.

So here’s the fun fact about Bryant: is that he converted what looks like his outdoor garage area into a practice area where he practices that MVP swing of his and crushes the ball. While I’m sure he has a pitching machine stashed somewhere on the property, Bryant has a pitchers practice net (which protects would-be pitchers from getting beamed with a line-drive), which allows a hitter to receive a live toss of the ball from a protected pitcher.

The rest of Bryant’s home-practice area is filled with Bryant bats (looks like a hundred) memorabilia from his career and awards earned. The last time I saw a video of the space, Bryant was playing a replay of the 2016 World Series on a television in the corner of the practice area while pitching some balls to his wife in the home batting cage.

What fans are looking forward to is a tour of this whole space by Bryant himself (hint-hint), so they can see all the goodies in the room! I’ve got a great idea! After the baby is born and needs to go for a nice walk to get to sleep, Bryant may just use that time to give us a tour with baby Mike (Kris’ dad’s name).

One of the coolest things Bryant likes to mention to teammates is a star-studded honor he received from his hometown.

Chicago Cubs: Kris Bryant gets a diamond-studded key

In 2015, during his rookie season, Bryant and fellow Las Vegas native and baseball juggernaut Bryce Harper both received a key to the city of Las Vegas from current Mayor Carolyn Goodman. Bryant had won NL Rookie of the Year, and Harper won the MVP title that year.

The keys to the city were exceptional gifts for the players as only three previous keys had ever been given out previously and mostly to entertainers who dedicated their talent and lives to the Vegas strip. In 2014, singer and actress Brittany Spears received one of the diamond-studded keys to the city as well for her contributions to entertaining the strip.

On December 17, 2015, Fremont Street in Las Vegas came alive for two of MLB’s most entertaining baseball players. The city hosted a ceremony honoring the two hometown ballplayers who grew up together and were best of friends. During the celebration and presentation of the keys to the city, the announcement went something like:

Kris Bryant is the third baseman for the Chicago Cubs. He was named the National League’s Rookie of the Year with 26 home runs, a .275 batting average, 99 runs batted in, 87 runs scored and 13 stolen bases.

Last month on March 7, when the Chicago Cubs took on the Cincinnati Reds in Las Vegas for a Big League weekend matchup, according to Matthew Seeman of 3News Las Vegas, Bryant bragged to coaches and teammates, including Cubs outfielder Ian Happ, that Las Vegas was truly his town.” You got to be born and raised here, do something cool,” Bryant tells his key-less teammate, later sharing the same anecdote with his third-base coach.

Poor Happ said on the Chicago Cubs Marquee Sports Network Tweet that he’s lived in a lot of cities, and no one ever gave him a key to their city! If that isn’t classic, I’m not sure what is. Bryant certainly has the right to be proud of his unique award, and of course, it’s even better having a key to the Entertainment Capital of the World. The best Happ could hope for from his hometown of  Pittsburgh is a bridge pass and a ‘Steel’ key.

Bryant’s key to the city of Las Vegas for his rookie year performance remains just another fun fact about the Cubs dynamic third baseman.