July 30 Lowell Mass On the Bucket

LOWELL, Mass. -- No one seems to know much about the origins of bucket duty. But it's been as much a batting practice staple as is the cage or that cut out screen that has saved the skull of many a BP chucker from a screaming comebacker.

 It's been said that some big league pitchers have gone to great lengths to get out of bucket duty...that Curt Schilling will pay $50 to an assistant clubbie to gather the balls that circulate through the outfield during BP and toss them into the big bucket situated safely behind a screen in back of second base.

  But this is not to impugn Schilling's sense of duty...and it is generally the duty performed during each day's BP by the previous game's starting pitcher.

 This is, instead to lay laurels at the large feet of one Nick Hagadone.

 Hagadone was hard to miss during Lowell Spinners' PB today...Big guy, glove on his right hand (he is a lefty)...and, when the call came from whichever Spinners BP hurler happened to be throwing at the moment...was actually seen sprinting to the  mound with a fresh supply of balls for the hopper....

 Nobody does that...

 But Hagadone, the first choice (second round) of the Red Sox in this June's draft, does...

 "It's the worst job during PB," said the easy going native of Idaho. "But I'm trying to so something to make it a little more fun."

 According to Spinners skipper Gary DiSarcina, the fomer Anaheim Angels star, Hagadone is just applying this typical penchant for hustle to even the most mundane of chores.

  "Once he gets between the lines and put's the uniform on, he's all business," said DiSarcina, who in the first year of his first managerial gig. "No matter what it is. Whether it's charting, or holding the radar gun. He's going to do a great job. That comes from makeup...a great family background and a college program that's instilled in him. We're lucky to have him."

Perhaps there's something else instilled, too. Self-preservation.

"I'm just trying not to get by a ball," he said.

I haven't seen Nick Hagadone pitch, yet.

But I have seen him work.