Interview with a Wart

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to chat with a new addition to the world of Twitter, @cuddyerswart -- someone who has some insider knowledge of Michael Cuddyer and the travails he's gone through to get in shape this Spring Training. I thought it would be interesting to hear his side of things and get a new (albeit awfully low to the ground) perspective.

CURVE: Mr. Wart, thanks for taking the time to chat with me, I'm sure you've got a particularly busy schedule what with Spring Training winding down.

WART: Not so much my schedule, I just hang around for the most part. It's Michael doing all the work, he's the real star. I'm just along for the ride.

CURVE: Well put. Tell us a little bit about your relationship with Michael, how things got started...

WART: Wow, that's a loaded question. I honestly don't remember how things went down -- it was just after getting knocked out of the playoffs, things weren't going too well. I think Michael was in a little bit of a funk. It was just one of those things -- two people in the right place at the right time, we kind of grew attached to each other. Perhaps some sort of a post-partem depression from baseball.

CURVE: I don't think I heard about your presence in his life until sometime during the Winter Meetings? I think we were all a little caught off guard in Twins Territory?

WART: I can see how that would happen. I think Michael actually wanted to let go at that point. Looking back perhaps I was becoming too clingy, it's one of those things seen a little easier in hindsight. But things went on a little longer than they should have, no one wants to be alone for the Holidays and all. In fact, I think the longer our relationship went on, the harder it was for us both to walk ... walk away I mean.

CURVE: What was the deciding factor for parting ways?

WART: He's kind of career driven. I think that was part of it for me at least. When the Twins front office stepped in and decided it was time to sever our relationship it was a little tough to say no. They basically just told him to cut me off. Freeze me out of his life. I was a little shocked, and I think he was too. It seems like it left a hole in both of our lives and we each sought out things to fill it. For him it was bandages and gauze, for me -- drugs, alcohol, and cheap pimples.

CURVE: Have you stayed in contact with Michael at all?

WART: These things linger on, they don't die quickly. We've had infrequent contact, only recently over Twitter. That was a defining moment in our friendship, I think, the fact that we can still stay in contact and let bygones be bygones.

CURVE: Do you have any complaints about your time together?

WART: Not complaints, per se. I think there's always things you'd want to change looking back on things. I think I held him back a little bit. Personally I hated how he would always wear tennis shoes after practice. We were in Florida, it was humid, I just wanted to breathe, I felt smothered. But really, if that's all you can find to complain about -- the guy's a gem, Claudia's a lucky lady and I really hate to think I ever might have got between them.

CURVE: Why a baseball player? Do you ever ask yourself that?

WART: I've always been a baseball fan. Sometimes I look back on the greatest moments in baseball -- Curt Schilling's bloody sock comes to mind -- and I think: that ... that's my future ... that's what I want to be remembered for. Blood on a sock in a baseball game. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Again, I'd like to thank @cuddyerswart for taking the time to answer these questions and being such a good sport!