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New Mets outfielder Mark Canha, signed this offseason after spending his first seven years with the A’s, fields some spring training Q&A from Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: It took you five years to make it to the major leagues, after being drafted by the Marlins in the seventh round in 2010. What was the low point emotionally for you?
A: That’s an easy one. It was in 2014, it just had a lot of uncertainty. I just had arguably the best professional season of my career, and it seemed like I had gotten it right at the right time, my first season in Triple-A. I expected to be called up to the big leagues with the Marlins at the time. And last day of the season comes around and we’re not going to the playoffs or anything, and I don’t get that call into the manager’s office. I just remember going home that year and thinking, ‘Man, that was it.’ That’s the best I got, that was the best year I’ve ever had, and it wasn’t good enough to get me to the big leagues. It was a hopeless feeling.
Q: Did you think about giving it up?
A: Yeah. I was gonna quit.
That offseason I told my agents, I said: “I’m gonna quit if this Rule 5 thing doesn’t work out, if I don’t get protected on the 40-man,” which I ended up not getting protected. I told them, “If this Rule 5 draft doesn’t work out, I’m gonna hang ‘em up.” They got on the phone and they scrambled and talked to writers and tried to get my name out there, and it worked out with the A’s.
Q: Tell Mets fans what kind of baseball player they’ll be getting.
A: They’re getting a passionate baseball player, an obsessive baseball player. Particularly hitting and the craft of hitting is not just my job, and not something I want to do well, but I have a thirst for learning and knowledge. It’s an absolute passion for me, and not just something I do at my job, it’s a life passion for me.
Q: You can play any outfield position and first base. Do you pride yourself on that?
A: I do, yeah, I pride myself on my athleticism. I played wide receiver and cornerback in high school football. I’ve always wanted to be an athlete, and be a good athlete. I have always kind of had that versatility coming up and kind of was one of the earlier people that kind of was that first wave where everyone started doing that.
Q: Describe your mentality in the batter’s box.
A: I’m a problem solver, I would say. I see every at-bat as a challenge and as a puzzle kind of, and I’m very kind of academic about the way I go about the game, and I try to learn as much as possible on the fly and as I go. And I just love the puzzle of trying to figure out each pitcher and giving myself that little edge.
Q: When you didn’t have the edge you have now, and being the perfectionist that you are, were there often frustrating times for you?
A: Yeah, yeah sure. Coming up through the minors and stuff, I always heard people talk about approach. … I had an idea of what I was doing, but a little of it I think was guesswork, and it was easier to do so and be successful just because maybe I was more talented than a lot of those people coming up. But once I got to the big leagues, you quickly realize maybe you’re not the most talented person on the field. I had to figure out to like carve my niche in the big leagues.
Q: Do you enjoy batting leadoff?
A: I do. Batting leadoff is great when you’re doing well (laugh). I learned last year and I did it very well in the first month or two of the season, and then I went through some struggles in the middle of year with injury and that made it a lot tougher to be a leadoff hitter battling an injury. It was something that was fun, but I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite spot in the lineup to hit.
Q: What’s your body like at the end of a season after getting hit by pitches as much as you have?
A: Yeah, it’s a little banged up. Occasionally you get one where you feel it for a few days, but despite the amount of times — I think 27 times last year or something — there weren’t that many that I can remember that were that bad. I never had to miss time, maybe one or two where there’s a deep bone bruise that you’ll feel for a couple of weeks. It’s part of the job. It’s kind of become a skill set, and it’s something that I worked into my game, and certainly doesn’t hurt my productivity or ability to score runs and help the team win.
Q: Describe some of your new teammates: Pete Alonso.
A: A great hitter. I love watching him and listening to him talk about baseball, because I haven’t heard too many guys that talk like him about the swing. There’s a method to the madness with him. It’s fun for me to hear that and hear guys’ different perspectives and try to pick what you like and try to pick these guys’ brains.
Q: Jacob deGrom.
A: Quiet … kind of stone-cold killer. I saw him pitch [Tuesday] night for the first time I’ve ever seen him pitch not on TV, and it was really cool to watch.
Q: Max Scherzer.
A: Kind of a no-nonsense type of pitcher. Just a bulldog, and not afraid to throw any pitch. He’s got the stuff, and he also has like pitchability, which is obviously rare.
Q: Buck Showalter.
A: Buck is just an obsessive observer of the game, and just sees all the details of the game so closely and is not afraid to tell things like it is, and it’s very refreshing.
Q: Since you are a foodie, give me your five best restaurants in America.
A: You have to cut me some slack ’cause I’m sure some of them are in New York. My bias is gonna be towards San Francisco ’cause I lived there for four or five years. I’ll say this: sushi is my favorite food, and the best sushi spot I’ve been to in America is in New York, and it’s called Sushi Nakazawa. And then it’s gonna be Benu in San Francisco, and then Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, and then Quince in San Francisco. And then I’ll go with Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. I’m gonna try some restaurants in New York this year that I’m sure would crack that top five.
Q: Where’s the best Italian meal?
A: La Ciccia, and that’s in San Francisco too. It’s Sardinian — and it’s phenomenal. That might make my top five actually now that you’ve brought it up.
Q: Why are you so proud of the fact that you’re an outside-the-box guy?
A: I kind of think throughout history those [who] are the most successful people, the most famous people, the most interesting people are outside-the-box people. I think that there’s a reason for that. You have to be a little weird, you have to have a little bit of a different perspective to be successful. I think that’s what makes people unique and interesting, and I think that should be embraced.
Q: How are you weird, or how are you an outside-the-box person?
A: I think in how much I think about the game. I’ve always been told and always been kind of criticized by my coaches or people around me who have watched me … I’ve been told a lot that I think too much. That’s just the way I do it. I don’t think it’s a negative thing necessarily, it’s just who I am.
Q: What is the biggest obstacle or adversity you’ve overcome?
A: Probably my season-ending injury in 2016. It was the year after my rookie year and I had a season-ending hip surgery. And then the next year, being away from the game for a year basically, not playing baseball, I struggled at the beginning and I was going up and down in ’17. In 2018, I kind of had my coming-out party and I was able to make that hurdle, and I did it successfully, and that felt like a big triumph.
Q: What was your worst minor league bus ride?
A: The first bus ride of the year in Jacksonville I think we were going to like Huntsville, Alabama, or something … eight or 10 hours or something. Because it was the first bus ride, we didn’t have any AC on the bus, they had to iron that out. I’ll never forget that bus ride, it was pretty miserable.
Q: If you could face one pitcher in MLB history, who would it be?
A: Some of the guys in today’s game I think are the best pitchers ever. Maybe someone like Satchel Paige would be really cool.
Q: If you could pick the brain of any hitter in MLB history, who would it be?
A: Ted Williams.
Q: You’ve read his book?
A: It was probably about eight or nine years ago when I was in Double-A that I read it. My manager at Double-A gave it to me and said, you need to read this book.
Q: And what did you get out of it?
A: I think he was very strong in his convictions and very much believed in his ideas and how he presented the art of hitting, and that’s something I admired. I just admire people who are confident in their skill set and just have belief in how they go about their business.
Q: What is your best single moment in baseball?
A: I think my debut [April 8, 2015 vs. the Rangers] was such a powerful moment because I went 3-for-5 and had a great game and stuff. It was kind of the pinnacle like, “OK, I made it. I’ve arrived.”
Q: Boyhood idols?
A: Barry Bonds, Jerry Rice, Jim Carrey.
Q: Jim Carrey?
A: I’m obsessed. … He’s hilarious. I love the laugh, and I loved his comedy. I don’t know what age I first saw “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” but I just remember thinking this is the best thing I’ve ever seen was this guy on camera. I was probably 7 or 8 years old the first time I saw Jim Carrey, but I was just … obsessed.
Q: You have two daughters.
A: My oldest is 4 now, and my youngest is almost 2.
Q: Has fatherhood changed you?
A: Yeah … it’s the best. I would say, between my wife and I, I was the one who approached her and said, “I’m ready for this, I want this.” That kind of came from being in the big leagues and seeing a lot more people that had kids and stuff. It’s been the most rewarding thing in my life, I think. I think I was a person that was made to be a dad, and I love it so much.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Jim Carrey, Bob Dylan, Frida Kahlo.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Dumb and Dumber.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Jim Carrey.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Nicole Kidman.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: This is my favorite story to tell. In 2018, it’s a dinner that I had with my wife and my first child. In New York, we’re playing the Yankees in the wild-card game, we had a workout the day before, and my wife and I decide to take our 9-month-old at the time baby girl to the NoMad Hotel, which you’re not really supposed to do I’m sure. And we had the best dinner, and all the waiters and waitresses and the manager was coming up and saying hi to my baby. They were all about it. They were accommodating, and when people treat your family like that, it means a lot to me. That’s one of my favorite places to go have dinner, it really is.
Q: Favorite book?
A: It’s called “A Zen Way of Baseball” by Sadaharu Oh. I loved it. I read that one along with Ted Williams’ book “The Art of Hitting.” I read those two books in Double-A. I was going through a rough patch, and not only was it a really fun book to read, and this guy had such an interesting story, Sadaharu Oh, but the book goes into details about how often he struggled, and he had some really bad slumps in his career, and it just made me feel like at the time like, “OK, this isn’t that bad. Everyone is human, everyone goes through these struggles, and even this guy, who was the greatest home run hitter of all time, went through this stuff.” It made me feel good about myself (laugh).
Q: Why do you like the big stage?
A: It’s the most fun. It’s a life experience. I’ve never been to Citi Field, but playing in Yankee Stadium and playing in Fenway Park and Wrigley, playing in those types of places are things I’m gonna tell my grandkids about, it’s like one of those things that I’m gonna look back in my career, and go, “That was the coolest.”
Q: What drives you?
A: The want to be the best. I want to be remembered as … and this sounds farfetched, and I don’t know how far away it is, but it’s some distance away from out of my reach right now … but the want to be the best baseball player in the world. To me, that’s why I play the game, ’cause I want to be the best that ever played. That’s not gonna happen to a lot of people, but if I could do that, say, for one year, if I could be the best in the world and say, “You know what? In 2022, I was the best in the world.” That’s the type of thing that drives me, as I am constantly in pursuit of that Pandora’s box of being the best.
Q: Is this a World Series-contending team?
A: 100 percent. It’s the most talented team I’ve ever seen on paper. There’s a lot of good pieces, a lot of different types of players, a lot of players with different skill sets and things to offer, and I think that’s the way you have to kinda construct a roster and it’s been done very well.
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