Life beyond yards, RBIs, road trips for Cubs’ Szczur

I think we all can agree there can be only one Dos Equis beer guy. But Matt Szczur, an outfielder for the Iowa and Chicago Cubs, is fairly interesting in his own right.

For starters, there's his surname.

It's pronounced "Caesar" as in the emperor, salad or Palace. It doesn't look like Caesar, though. It looks like something you would get if you laid out a bunch of Alpha-Bits on the breakfast table and sneezed real hard.

I think the "S" and the "Z" are silent. Or maybe it's the "C" and the second "Z."

Anyway, it's probably a good thing Harry Caray still isn't around. He would not be able to pronounce the 26-year-old prospect's name forward or backward.

Then there was the two-sport career, football and baseball, at Villanova.

Szczur, who is in town with teammates from the Heartland, tormenting the 51s in a key four-game series at Cashman Field, was a wide receiver, running back and wildcat formation quarterback.

In the 2009 Football Championship Series national championship game, Szczur accumulated 270 all-purpose yards and was named Most Valuable Player of Villanova's 23-21 victory.

The opponent was Montana. The Montana coach was Bobby Hauck. That was the last game Hauck coached at Montana before he became UNLV's coach for a little while.

So there's that, and there also is the constant back-and-forth between Iowa and Chicago.

Szczur has been called up and sent down six times this season.

He should be a spokesman for the Duncan yo-yo people.

There are 332 miles of corn belt between Des Moines and Chicago, about a five-hour drive. By now, Matt Szczur knows where all the good truck stops are on Interstate 80 — or at least the world's largest one, called Iowa 80, just off exit 284 in Walcott.

It has parking for 900 trucks and a utility outfielder who believes he has the chops to play every day in the big leagues.

"It's not a bad thing; you've just got to get through it mentally," he said of keeping apartments in two baseball cities.

He said his bride, Natalie, is the real trouper. Szczur proposed to her on Broadway, onstage, in front of cast members at the Ambassador Theater's production of — what else? — "Chicago."

His wife has been with him all the way on the baseball yo-yo and at the World's Largest Truck Stop. On this trip, she posted an Instagram picture of herself drinking a libation from one of those giant fist koozies they sell on Fremont Street.

Despite limited at-bats, Natalie Szczur's husband has contributed to the Cubs' success. In June, for instance, he hit a 382-foot home run off Clayton Kershaw during a 3-1 victory over the Dodgers.

So Szczur has a cool last name, he can get the tough yards on third down, he knows where the speed traps and good grub are on I-80, and the really good pitchers don't frighten him. And his wife is not above drinking from a giant fist koozie on Fremont Street.

These are all interesting stories.

But the best story about Matt Szczur was told in 2009, when he still was at Villanova.

A girl in Ukraine, just 15 months old, was dying of leukemia.

It was Matt Szczur of Cape May Court House, N.J., and now property of the Chicago Cubs, who saved her life.

He had a friend in high school who had battled leukemia, so he signed up with the National Marrow Donor Program while at Villanova. It was a long shot, but Szczur was a perfect match with the little sick girl in Ukraine.

At first it was thought he might miss some of the football playoffs. One of the side effects of donating bone marrow is taking strong drugs that may cause one's spleen to swell up like Cubs pitcher Pedro Strop when he strikes out multiple White Sox with ducks on the pond.

It turned out Szczur didn't have to go into the hospital until right after the football championship game.

Too bad for Bobby Hauck and the Griz.

Great for the little sick girl in Ukraine.

She's 5 years old now. At last report, she still was in remission, healthy, able to do all the things little girls do. Szczur's a little concerned, though, because his last couple of emails have bounced back.

"It's tough because I really want to know what's going on, how she's doing," he said in the cool runway outside the visitors' clubhouse.

It was ESPN that arranged for her savior and the little girl to meet via laptop computer, Skype and a translator. The uplifting segment aired on "E: 60."

The little girl's first name is Anastasia. Her last name has multiple consonants and syllables like a forward on the old Red Army checking line.

"I wish I could read her last name. Should I even give it a try?" Szczur said to family members during the "E:60" segment. "I guess it would be like somebody trying to pronounce our last name."

Matt and little Anastasia and Anastasia's parents, a truck driver and an accountant, spoke through a translator and giant smiles.

Matt Szczur said that was awesome.

"Oh my God — when I saw her (for the first time) it was such a great feeling, seeing her family, seeing their reactions," he said.

On Saturday night, Szczur played center field, batted second and went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in the I-Cubs' 6-1 victory. His batting average dipped below .300. His perspective on the important things in life is a lot higher than his batting average.

When we chatted before the ballgame at Cashman Field, Matt Szczur didn't seem all that concerned by the 0-fer.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski