Campana relishes big league debut

May, 18, 2011
5/18/11
8:10
PM CT

MIAMI -- At Iowa he’s known as “Spider Monkey.” In the major leagues he’s known as the only hitter with a 1.000 batting average as play began Tuesday night.

Tony Campana enjoyed his first big league experience Tuesday night, scoring the go-ahead run in the seventh inning as a pinch-runner and driving in the Cubs’ fifth run with a double in his first major league at-bat.

“I took it all in and I tried not to get distracted,” Campana said. “My job is to help the team and not get distracted and that’s what I did.”

Campana, who graduate from the University of Cincinnati, had more than 50 people in the stands on Tuesday.

“You can’t worry about things like that,” he said. “You try to stay in the moment and just do your job. The next day you can look at it and try to enjoy it.”

Campana won’t be in the starting lineup anytime soon, according to manger Mike Quade. Quade, however, said he believes Campana has value as a pinch-runner and defensive replacement.

Bruce Levine | email

Chicago baseball beat reporter
Bruce Levine has covered sports in Chicago for over 28 years and hosts "Talkin' Baseball," heard Saturday mornings on ESPN 1000.

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TEAM LEADERS

BA LEADER
Starlin Castro
BA HR RBI R
.313 2 25 18
OTHER LEADERS
HRB. LaHair 10
RBIS. Castro 25
RD. DeJesus 25
OPSB. LaHair 1.020
WP. Maholm 4
ERAR. Dempster 2.28
SOJ. Samardzija 57