CHICAGO -- He got his dream job at 37 years old: Chicago Cubs pitching coach. Then the season started, and Tommy Hottovy (Hot-ah-vee) must have thought he was part of a recurring nightmare. The Cubs bullpen blew three leads in the team's first five games, and the staff ERA was closer to 10.00 than 3.00.
Last year, Hottovy was a little known "run-prevention coordinator" for the Cubs, hunched over a computer most of his day. Now he's squarely in the spotlight, leading a veteran group with playoff aspirations -- and trying to recover from a rough start and build off the momentum of a shutout in the home opener.