Meet Carlos QuentinQ: Coming back to your hometown — it can be awesome, it can be distracting. What is it for you?
A: I think it’s the best opportunity for me to bring an offseason that I enjoy so much into my regular season. So if you look at it that way it’s a really positive thing. I have so much fun in a city that I love, San Diego, in the offseason. Now here, I can extend my offseason, bring some of that joy and ion for living and life into the baseball season, which I feel like is going to be great energy and give me a lot of enthusiasm throughout the season.
Q: What would we see you out doing in San Diego in the offseason?
A: You’d see me on my boogie board, or bodysurfing, or playing horseshoes on the beach. I love doing that. My old boat that breaks down every other time I take it out, I’d be out on the bay on that, probably stranded.
Q: What was your first baseball memory?
A: I playing catch with my grandfather when I was a kid. I hitting my dad’s knuckle ball off his chin when I was a kid and we were practicing. He never pitched to me again because he was scared. Love you, Dad.
Q: You came to the Padres by way of the White Sox, before that the Diamondbacks. You’ve been through a lot of ups and downs — injuries, hitting highs, hitting lows. Do you feel like your perspective on the game has changed at all, now that you’ve been through some of that?
A: I’ve grown as a baseball player, and as a person. Anytime you deal with adversity it gives you a chance to grow and to shape your character into something better, hopefully. … I’ve always felt like I have a very high potential to reach. I’ve always enjoyed doing the work to get there. I’ve always believed that I’ll eventually get a chance to get there consistently. Whether injuries play a part in it — that’s just something that’s happened, but I’ve always taken that into and it’s always been part of my training, to prevent injuries.
Q: It’s a fickle game.
A: It definitely is. It’s performance based, it’s its own world in itself, it definitely gives you a ton of adversity to handle. … The key is being able to be comfortable with yourself and exist within your own skin through adversity and know that good things will happen. For all people, it’s different. It’s something that can be learned, for some people it’s natural. For me it’s something I’ve always had to learn, get better at. And I have. I can say that wholeheartedly. Every year I’ve gotten better.
Q: Some people come in and they want those 36 home runs that you got in 2008, they just want that right away.
A: Let me say this: Everything that I say right now is a reminder also to myself. Because there’s days when you come in and you want all that, and you forget the way you’re supposed to do it. The right way. And you resort back to instant gratification, being results-oriented, not focusing on the process. That’s when you prime yourself to not handle the adversity and be unsuccessful. So when I say that, I’m also reminding myself — every day — that that’s the right way to do it.
Q: 36 home runs in 2008, more than 20 home runs every year after that. If you could give young batters everywhere ONE piece of advice, what would it be?
A: Treat every pitch as its own pitch. The thing that happens is people get caught up in one pitch affecting the next. So you treat everything as its own individual, independent entity, because guess what — whether you have two strikes, or one strike, or no strikes on you, the next pitch that’s available is gonna be the pitch that you can do the most damage with. And if you want to be successful on that pitch, or that at-bat, or that game, your full focus better be into that moment. So I would say that, move moment to moment. And commit to that moment.
Q: That’s good life advice. When you’re about to bat, do you love it? The adrenaline rush?
A: I like the competition. I like the one-on-one between the pitcher and the batter.
Q: You are serious, but there is such a fun side to you. I see you in the clubhouse, having fun with the guys, egging people on, joking. Do you feel like there’s a time and a place, or are you trying to enjoy the process more?
A: I’m trying to enjoy the process. I guess having fun and joking with the guys is as much for me as for them (laughs). These are my teammates. These are the guys I’m going into battle with. I enjoy speaking with my teammates all the time. … Me messing around with the guys, that’s therapeutic to me in there. Something that’ll always remind me, “This is how I should be, this is who I am, let’s let a little of that come out on the field, whether that be on the inside or the outside.”
Q: Last question. Easy one. $100 in your pocket. You’re at the mall. What are you buying?
A: Cinnabon.
