CHICAGO — It wasn’t exactly music to his ears.
But “they sang; I danced,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said the day after going viral for dancing to the rhythm of Wrigley Field fans chanting “He’s on steroids!”
The San Diego Padres right fielder, who returned last Thursday from an 80-game PED suspension, said he didn’t plan the response, even as he anticipated “in the back of my head” the road fans’ taunts.
“It just came out,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said Wednesday in a conversation with Sportsnaut before the Chicago Cubs and Padres played the second game of their three-game series in Chicago. “Just giving something to the fans, so they could keep enjoying the ballgame.”
Tatis, who said that without sarcasm or irony, easily is the biggest question mark for a team of superstars that has gotten off to an inexplicably slow start, especially at the plate, since their National League Championship Series appearance last fall.
But if anyone wondered how a $340 million former MVP finalist might mentally handle his return after missing more than a year because of multiple injuries and then the suspension, he may have answered those questions as quickly as they arose.
Since returning on the road in Arizona, where Padres fans outnumbered Arizona Diamondbacks fans and overpowered the taunts with cheers, he has hit safely in five straight games after a hitless season debut, including a homer Saturday.
Then he danced.
“I think he is in a very good head space,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said. “He’s in a good mood every day. He’s appreciative about being back and playing baseball. I see that every day.”
Melvin didn’t even have to see Tuesday’s dance to know that much. In fact, he said he didn’t see it — but did not seem surprised that his 24-year-old star responded that way the first time the hate-calls descended.
“He knows he’s probably going to go through some stuff here early on,” Melvin said. “Trying to just be himself is all he’s trying to do.
“He’s a fun-loving guy. He’s a great guy to be around.”
Fernando Tatis Jr., whose positive test for steroids last year left the Padres “absolutely livid,” according to Kevin Acee in the San Diego Tribune, returned last week a more “mature” person and player, he said.
Fernando Tatis Jr.’s long road to rediscovery
In addition to getting his legs back under him and rediscovering his All-Star groove at the plate, Fernando Tatis Jr. knows he’s got a long road ahead this season. Especially on the road.
He figured Chicago, Philadelphia and maybe San Francisco — “and L.A. for sure” — would be among the worst road cities for fans riding him from the bleachers.
“At most of the visiting [ballparks] I’m probably going to hear stuff like that,” he said. “It’s up to myself how I take it, how I embrace it, and how I show the love back.”
Could that be the key to cutting through the noise? The best way to deal with adversarial fans — maybe even win over a few?
“I feel like, yeah, it’s going to help,” he said. “But different fans have different attitudes, and you’ve got to see it and find out for yourself.”
If anything, the fans may be the least of his issues as Fernando Tatis Jr. navigates his first season back for a team with a $245 million payroll and World Series-or-bust expectations, especially if his text-blow phone and social media response to the dance were any indication.
“It brought a smile to everybody. Everybody was having fun with it,” Tatis said. “I’m just glad I brought a good moment to it.”
Now comes the hard part.
The rest of the season, including the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff and Yankee Stadium in May, the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays pitching in June, the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays in succession in July, and so on.
“I feel good so far,” he said, adding he has plenty of adjustments to make as he gets reacquainted with daily life in a big-league batter’s box — but that he’s not surprised with the early comfort.
“Yeah, it’s been a long time,” he said, “but I feel like this is what happens when baseball is in your DNA. You have [muscle] memory, you know. It’s like riding a bike — obviously not that easy — but you just ride into that jungle right away.”
It’s a jungle with several new teammates and even a new manager since he last played, in 2021.
“But I’m feeling pretty comfortable,” he said.
And this: Don’t sleep on this guy. He expects to be every bit the MVP-caliber impact bat for a playoff contender that he was before he got hurt and then busted.
“Even better,” he said. “I feel like I’m a smarter, better hitter now with time. And I feel when I start hitting [my stride] here, it’s going to be really fun to watch.”
And if you don’t believe how confident he is about that, you didn’t see him dance Tuesday.
“This game is just tough on your mind, from the time you start playing it,” Tatis said. “I’m still a young guy, but I feel like I have a lot of experiences in this game.”
Talk about an understatement.
“I feel I embrace every challenge, every different situation,” he said. “Obviously, not everything is going to come out the way you want it to. But you keep adjusting, you keep finding a way, and that’s the beautiful thing about this game. It’s never the same.”
The Padres took the field Wednesday fighting to get back to .500, and Tatis delivered a go-ahead, two-run single in the seventh in the Padres’ 5-3 win over the Cubs.
It’s probably no shock what he thinks is in store for this team by the time the next five — and even six — months play out.
“I feel like everybody knows that,” he said. “I don’t want to talk much about it. But a lot of people say we are dogs out there. I don’t feel like we’re dogs. We’re f—-ing lions in the jungle.”
Gordon Wittenmyer covers Major League Baseball for Sportsnaut. You can follow him on Twitter at @GDubCub.