Commentary | Rod Beck, dead at 38, never thought of himself as special

Around town "Shooter," as he was called, was living in a trailer down by the river. Yet life was good for the former Cubs reliever when I visited him four years ago.

With a can of beer in one hand and a smile on his face, Rod Beck was enjoying life to the fullest, even while rehabbing his surgically repaired right shoulder at Triple-A Iowa and hoping for another shot at the big leagues.

"It's really a pretty nice place. I'm not trailer trash," Beck said with a smile as he offered a cold brew and a tour of his state-of-the-art, 36-foot Winnebago Journey DL, which was parked just behind the center-field scoreboard of Sec Taylor Stadium (now called Principal Park) about 50 yards from the Des Moines River.

Greeting Iowa Cubs fans outside his rig after games became routine for Beck, who considered himself a blue-collar guy.

"I'm just regular people like anyone else," he told me. "I just happen to be on television. If plumbing was a sport and [plumbers] were on TV, they would be heroes and sign autographs. I am a blue-collar guy and do my job. If people think it's exciting, I'm flattered by it. If they want [an autograph], that's cool. I don't know what they're going to do with it."

Such not-so-distant memories made Sunday an eerie day as well. Beck was found dead in his Phoenix-area home over the weekend. He was 38, and the cause of death has not been determined. Beck, who had 286 career saves, had a history of substance abuse and entered drug rehab before his career ended with the San Diego Padres in 2004.

Beck approached his Iowa stint as a fun adventure. He had begun driving from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., earlier that spring and only got as far as Amarillo, Texas, over a period of three days.

"I dropped a line fishing here and there," Beck explained.

He then summoned his brother to help him drive the rest of the way to Des Moines. The idea of living in a fancy RV really appealed to Beck.

"My family came up for a week and lived in here with me," he said. "It's like going camping and playing baseball at the same time. "

Beck was a three-time All-Star, and his signature season was probably 1998, when he saved 51 games for the Cubs. Dusty Baker had made him a closer in San Francisco when Beck came up in 1991.

"The best fun I ever had was with the '98 Cubs," Beck told me. "That's because there has been so much futility with the Cubs. To win the wild card and make the playoffs ... the way the city treated us was great. It was the first year after Harry Caray had passed. Then we had that eerie night of the 163rd game when we had to play the Giants. To beat the team that ultimately was still paying me was funny. So they paid me to beat them that night. Dusty was in the other dugout and the Harry Caray balloon was floating in the air. It was an eerie day."

Kerry Wood, a rookie in 1998, remembered Beck as "a tremendous teammate."

"It's horrible. Obviously my first thoughts are about his kids," Wood said. "He was a great teammate, a great person and I'm sorry to hear the news."

Wood recalled Beck's easygoing personality, especially during that tension-filled '98 Cubs playoff season.