Chicago Sports Day Contributor, Steve Swingle takes an introspective look at the fine art of catching, and breaks down some of the perceptions, and issues with the Cubs backstops of the recent past, and today’s unit of Henry Blanco, and Michael Barrett.

O.K. first let me give you a little background about myself before I go any further. I grew up on a ball diamond. I can’t remember a summer when my summer wasn’t spent either playing, or watching ball games. I grew up in a family of fast pitch softball players. Both of my grandfathers played. My mother’s father was a catcher, and my father’s father was a pitcher.

My dad was also a fast pitch pitcher for over 35 years (playing at a high level for most of those years). I also grew up as a pitcher through little leagues and pony league so I do have a pretty good idea of what makes a pitcher tick.

Onto the subject at hand. I would like to discuss catchers, and more to the point, Cubs catchers over the past few seasons. In 2003 the Cubs had a catcher in Damian Miller who was an outstanding defensive catcher and maybe even a better signal caller.

However, Miller was pretty bad at the plate batting .233 with just nine homers. Enter Michael Barrett, who is not near the defensive catcher miller was but was a much better hitter. This move seemed to thrill most Cub fans, but not this one.

Watching the Cubs pitchers in 2003, I noticed how much confidence the staff had in Miller, and how rarely they shook him off. It was pretty easy to tell that they trusted him with just about everything.

Last season I saw early on that the staff did not show that same trust in Barrett. I saw fewer sliders low and away in the dirt (a well-used weapon in 2003) and the pitchers seemed to shake him off a lot more than they did Miller.

Now some of you may say, "so what?" Well as someone who has grown up learning the art of pitching pretty much their whole life, I can tell you that pitching is all about being loose and finding a rhythm.

If a pitcher is not comfortable with his catcher, he can be neither loose nor rhythmic on the rubber. In 2003 Miller was about as big a part of the success of the pitching staff as the pitchers themselves was. He was essentially the staff’s security blanket.

A great defensive catcher can do wonders for a team ERA. Sure it may be flashier to have a catcher who can hit .300 with 20 HR’s, but at what cost? Is it worth it to weaken your pitching staff in order to insert a player into the lineup who is still going to fail seven out of ten times, or have a great defensive catcher who is involved in every play and by just being there may be worth the opposing team having fewer hits because his pitcher threw a better game?

I don’t what any of you to think that I am bashing Barrett in this article because that is not my intent. My intent to is to show that a pitching staff needs a great catcher in order to pitch to their full potential. I like Barrett as a catcher because of his leadership, toughness, and grit. He has also shown a big improvement defensively from 2004 to 2005, especially in throwing out base runners. Where he still needs work though is in his signal calling.

Manager Dusty Baker has said he plans on pairing Greg Maddux with Barrett quite often this season, to help improve his signal calling abilities. Having a proven veteran back up like Henry Blanco should help Barrett as well.

So just remember the next time you scream at your television screen when a Cubs pitcher gives up a home run, try and remember if the pitcher shook off his catcher. Because if he didn't, then you need to yell at the catcher not just the pitcher. Too many people see the catchers position as an after thought when in fact it may just be one of the most important positions on the field if not the most important.