PHOENIX — Gregg Zaun bursts into the clubhouse with his headband on, gripping a baseball bat like a Fender Stratocaster while he strums the guitar solo of Boston's "More Than A Feeling."
About 20 minutes later, he's eating breakfast and reading the paper, focused on the task at hand before he hears Journey and can't help but shadow drum the beat.
The Milwaukee Brewers' newest veteran catcher certainly isn't like stoic Jason Kendall, who spent two years guiding a pitching staff that reached the postseason in 2008 and then was short on talent in last year's 80-82 campaign.
Even though Zaun is three years older than Kendall and turns 39 next month, he said if he's not bouncing around the clubhouse, something would definitely be wrong.
"Gregg brings a little different perspective," Brewers manager Ken Macha said. "There's a lot of ways to skin a cat. I think Gregg's got some different ideas."
For all Zaun's emotion off the field, he says the most emotion he shows on it is a "mini" fist pump.
The Brewers show plenty of emotion on their own, and Zaun's one of a group of veterans brought in by the Brewers to fill key roles this season.
"I'm not afraid to speak my mind when I think things aren't being done right in the clubhouse. I would characterize myself as a bit of a policeman. I just think the game should be played a certain way and I think it should command a certain amount of respect from players, even in this generation," Zaun said. "I believe that on the field I'm not the most talented guy in the world, but I play the game with a lot of emotion, a lot of passion and I play hard."
But wait a second, Gregg, you signed a $2.15 million, one-year deal for this season with a team option for next year in December and these Brewers don't have a lot of friends in old-school baseball circles with their untucked shirts and demonstrative celebrations.
"The younger generation of players, they have a brashness about them, a swagger, a confidence and that's good, but the one thing you can always count on, even if they change the rules about fightin' and throwin' at people, baseball players have a way of policing this game all by themselves," Zaun said. "When people step out of line, they get disciplined, whether it's by their own club or by other teams. It's always been that way and it always will be that way."
Zaun's primary task will be to improve a starting staff that finished with the worst ERA in the majors last year at 5.37. There will be at least two new starters in the rotation, led by Randy Wolf and Doug Davis. Zaun will bring his experience from the AL East, where he's spent eight of his 15 seasons and a large amount of time catching Roy Halladay.
"To be successful in the American League East, you have to learn how to think outside the box," he said. "The one thing that I'm going to preach first and foremost is let's be able to throw the ball where we want to, let's execute pitches."
Meanwhile, his unique style could be a big hit in Milwaukee from his custom made line of golf pants to an oddball fan club — the Zaunbie Nation, created by a group of friends while he played for the Blue Jays.
"They started wearing all these crazy ghoul masks," Zaun said. "I think there were like eight or nine of them. I wouldn't say it's grown. Every once and a while you'll see a sign, but it was pretty much eight guys that didn't even live in Toronto. I figured while it was funny and somewhat popular — all eight of them — you might as well run with it."
Zaun isn't the only new Brewer with a prepackaged fan club. Wolf has heard the howls from the 'Wolf Pack' this spring and Zaun laughs at the possibilities of catching the left-hander in a postseason series in October.
"I can't even imagine the costumes if you get the Wolf Pack and the Zaunbie Nation together," he joked. "It'd be like the Michael Jackson 'Thriller' video."
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