Church, Schneider return to D.C.
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By Joe Conroy
Published: April 24, 2008
There were mixed emotions between the two considering the tumultuous time they spent with the organization from the days in Montreal and now excelling with their new club.
“It’s going to be good to, with all the D.C. fans, to say hi to them,” said Church, New York’s right fielder. “Hopefully I don’t get booed.” Neither Church nor Schneider were booed when their names were called during the announcement of the starting lineups, a testament to their popularity and the way they left town. In fact, Schneider received the loudest ovation for an opposing player not named Johan Santana.
For Church, the return to Washington is almost a chance for closure to a tough start to his young career. Church batted .271 while being shuffled in and out of the lineup and up and down from the majors to the minors for much of his four years with Montreal/Washington, struggling to find a spot in the order and outfield.
He found a home with the Mets thanks to the offseason trade but the deal was not met with ex-citement by the 29-year-old.
“In spring training I wanted to hit a home run every time I came up [against Washington],” he said of his displeasure with the trade. “But all that emotion, that’s all gone. It’s a business.” With consistent playing time Church has been all business thus far in 2008. Thanks to a torrid April, Church is batting .338 with two home runs and 11 RBI. He’s slugging .451, but the most impressive part of his game is that he is hitting left-handed pitching with great success.
When facing southpaws in 2007, Church hit just .229. This year, through 31 at bats entering Wednesday night’s contest, the left-handed hitter is hitting .355 against lefties. He was even moved to the fifth spot in the Mets’ lineup last night, behind Carlos Beltran and in front of Carlos Delgado.
Schneider, 31, is also enjoying some early success as New York’s backstop. Despite missing the last three games with a bruised right forearm, the catcher is hitting .308 this year and was happy to be back in the nation’s capital.
“It’s just weird coming here and seeing the security people, the guys that work in the parking lot,” Schneider said. “The big thing is just to come back here and see the familiar faces of all the people behind the scenes.” With everything the pair went through as part of the Nationals, the two were almost wistful of not being part of the first home team to play at Nationals Park along with cornerstone third baseman Ryan Zimmerman.
“Yeah, you always want to be a part of the new stadium, it’s great,” Schneider said. “The reason I say that is going from Montreal to Puerto Rico and here, we went through a lot of things. But by no means would I rather be with the Nationals than the Mets, not at all. And we’ve got a new stadium next year.” “I think it’s cool to see the final product here at the stadium,” Church added. “I’m really happy for all the guys here, (Nick) Johnson, Zim. They’ve finally got a place they can call home that’s just baseball.”
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