Jason Heyward On Interaction With Cardinals Fans: 'Everybody's Been Very Nice'
(CBS) There was certainly a measure of online vitriol thrown the way of outfielder Jason Heyward when he chose to leave the Cardinals and signed an eight-year, $184-million deal with the Cubs last December.
As for his human interaction with Cardinals fans, that's had an entirely different feel.
"Any St. Louis fan I've seen in person, they've kind of gone out of their way, since me coming to Chicago, they've gone out of their way to be nice and say, 'Congratulations, thank you for last year and 2015 -- we wish you nothing but the best, except against us obviously,'" Heyward said. "Everybody's been very nice. I feel like that like that doesn't get a lot of attention."
Heyward's new team and his old one meet Monday evening for the first time since last fall's NLDS, which the Cubs took in four games. Chicago enters at 9-3, leading the NL Central by two games over St. Louis.
Heyward isn't sure what type of reaction he'll get in his return to Busch Stadium, where another former Cardinal, John Lackey, gets the start for the Cubs.
"I don't really care either way," Heyward said. "It's not going to matter. It's going to be baseball. It's going to be fun."
Heyward also displayed respect for the Cardinals, saying despite all the preseason hype, the Cubs have so much to prove.
"It's just a sense of knowing you got to respect everyone in our division and, of course, the Cardinals," Heyward said. "They won the division last year. We had a good team in 2015, and just to be where you want to be, you got to go through teams like that, to take that next step into the playoffs."
"We knew we had our work to do, but at the same time, just take care of your business on the field, and that's that. Baseball's fun. It's fun for the fans, it's fun for players, obviously, when you have those division rivalries, so to speak. People have asked me about the rivalry this year, and I feel like I'm on the side that feels like we have a lot of work to do as far as being established in the playoffs. They've got World Series championships. They've got division titles. We want to be established as a group here in Chicago that does that and is recognized for that every year."