Before we get to my chat with former big leaguer Tony Womack, here’s some quick news and notes from tonight’s game between Lynchburg and Potomac at City Stadium.

The starting lineups:

Potomac (17-9)
Dan Nelson 2b
Michael Martinez ss
Francisco Plasencia dh
Michael Burgess rf
Chris Marrero 1b
Tim Pahuta 3b
Devin Ivany c
Aaron Seuss lf
Boomer Whiting cf
Hassan Pena rhp

Lynchburg (9-16)
Jose De Los Santos 2b
Alex Presley cf
Jordy Mercer ss
Matt Hague 1b
Kent Sakamoto dh
Jared Keel lf
Erik Huber rf
Eric Fryer c
Eddie Prasch 3b
Ronald Uviedo rhp

—To make room for Uviedo on the active roster, the Hillcats placed Chi-Hung Cheng, last night’s starter, on the disabled list. Another paper move.

(Side note—I talk here about paper moves a lot, and I feel like I should explain exactly what a paper move is. Player movement is much more flexible at the minor-league level because, as we’ve pointed out time and time again on the blog, minor league baseball is much more about player development than wins and losses. Cheng must stay on the disabled list for seven days, which means he can be activated July 30. With Lynchburg’s starting pitching situation—it has six starters—Cheng wouldn’t pitch until July 30 anyhow. Right now, State College is only carrying 24 players, which gives the teams above State College the option to “demote” someone down to State College, even though they’re still with their original club. That’s why Matt McSwain is currently on the State College roster. He’s still in town, but the Hillcats can only carry 25 active players. There’s no limit to the moves that happen between levels. Minor-league options only come into play when you’re talking about moving guys from the big leagues back down to the minors. So there’s your quick “paper move” primer.)

—The rumor was that Uviedo was set to head up to Altoona with Pedro Alvarez, Miles Durham, Michael Dubee and Dustin Molleken at the All-Star Break, but the tendinitis Uviedo was feeling in his throwing elbow derailed those plans. The Pirates put Uviedo on the 40-man roster before the season started, so one can assume they hoped he would shoot up the system. Uviedo was rated the Pirates’ No. 18 prospect by Baseball America in the preseason. The real draw is his fastball, which touches 95 and sits consistently at 91-93. Uviedo was improving his changeup before the injury, which is key. At best, though, he’s at two-pitch pitcher best suited for a relief role in the majors. The Pirates envision him as a late-innings situational guy. He’ll probably be limited to 40 or 50 pitches tonight, his first start in Lynchburg in more than a month.

—Uviedo is 5-3 with a 3.18 ERA, but Potomac has been his kryponite this season. Against the Nationals, Uviedo is 0-3 with a 4.32 ERA, allowing eight earned runs in 16 2/3 innings.

—Hillcats 2B Jose De Los Santos went 1-for-5 with a triple Wednesday and is batting .371 (23-for-62) in his last 15 games.

—Speaking of weird splits:

* Hillcats OF Ciro Rosero versus Potomac this season—3-for-6, 2 2B, 3 RBIs, 2 BB, 2 K

* Rosero versus everyone else—1-for-8, 6 K.

********

Now the Womack Q&A.

Womack attended Gretna High School and Guilford College, was a seventh-round draft pick of the Pirates in 1991, won a World Series with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001 and played in another World Series in 2004 as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

I covered that 2001 World Series at my previous job, and I have some pretty vivid memories of Womack’s performance during the ‘01 playoffs, especially in Game 5 of the Division Series against St. Louis and Game 7 of the World Series against the Yankees.

First Game 5, and The Bunt.

The Cardinals tied the D-backs at 1 in the eighth, setting up the ninth-inning drama at what was then known as Bank One Ballpark (or the BOB, as we called it out there). Matt Williams led off the ninth with a double and manager Bob Brenly replaced Williams with pinch hitter Midre Cummings. Catcher Damian Miller bunted Cummings over to third, and the excitement in the building rose. One out, runner on third, a trip to the NLCS on the line. After some managerial gamesmanship between Brenly and Tony La Russa, Greg Colbrunn came to the plate as a pinch hitter, replacing Curt Schilling, who threw a complete game. Steve Kline intentionally walked Colbrunn to get to Womack, giving the D-backs runners at the corners with one out. Smart move. Womack was at best a 50-50 bet to hit a ball far enough for drive Cummings in with a sac fly. So Brenly made a decision ... he went for the suicide squeeze. One problem. Kline threw a pitch so far to the outside that Womack had no chance of bunting it. Cummings went anyway, and he was out at home on a bang-bang play.

Trust me on this, Womack wasn’t the goat. Brenly got absolutely skewered on Phoenix talk radio the next day. But that was Brenly’s personality. He gambled. You’ve got to credit Kline in that scenario. He knew what was coming and made a hell of a pitch.

“I couldn’t bunt that ball if I had a longer bat,“ Womack said.

Colbrunn went to second on the botched squeeze, and Brenly replaced him with pinch runner Danny Bautista. Now with two outs, Womack was forced to hit, and he did just that lining a single to left that scored Bautista and advanced the Diamondbacks to the NLCS.

Womack was in the thick of Game 7 of the World Series, too. The Yankees took a 2-1 lead when Alfonso Soriano golfed a low Schilling pitch into the left field stands to lead off the eighth inning. They held that lead after 8 1/2 innings, and the untouchable Mariano Rivera came on to close out the Diamondbacks. But Mark Grace led off the ninth with a single and was replaced by pinch runner David Dellucci. Damian Miller tried to sacrifice Dellucci to second with a bunt, only Rivera mishandled the ball, and Miller reached on an error. Jay Bell came in to pinch hit and bunted, but Dellucci was out at third, leaving runners at first and second with one out. Cummings ran for Miller, and Womack came to the plate. Womack doubled to right field, allowing Cummings to score the tying run. Bell moved to third. Clearly rattled, Rivera plunked Craig Counsell to load the bases, and with the BOB pulsating with energy, Luis Gonzalez strode to the plate. Gonzalez hit a single to shallow left, Bell scored, and absolute pandemonium ensued.

“You’re the last team standing out of 30, man,“ Womack said. “That was outstanding.“

Womack retired in 2006, finishing his career with a .273 batting average. Three times, he led the National League in steals.

The rest of the Q&A:

N&AWhat are you up to these days?

TW Playing golf! I’ve got a 10-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, she’s going to high school, so I’m getting old. I’m working with my charity foundation, “Stealing Hearts.“ I had something similar when I was a player, but now that I’m not playing, I’ve got my own. I go to schools. I make donations to charities that need equipment, anything to help these kids get a better education. I do that through the “Y Foundation” in Charlotte. I’m trying to give back as much as I can. I can’t hit everybody, but I hit what’s closest to home.

N&A You live in Charlotte, right? How often do you get back up to this area?

TW I get to come back quite a bit because my family still lives in Chatham. I’m around. I’m not too far away.

N&A How did you get involved with the NABF?

TW This is the first time I’ve been involved, and I’m looking to get involved a little bit more. The way baseball is going, you’ve got to keep this kids focused if they want baseball, because it’s a sport that nothing is given. You have to take the opportunity. You have to take that to the next level. You’re not guaranteed to go to the big league. Being drafted is an honor. But I just think baseball is a sport like no other. You have to put that time in. It’s such a long season. ... You’ve got to be mentally strong. You’re outside, it’s 95 degrees. It’s not like basketball inside. You never get a break. It’s a great sport. Once your time in the game is over, you’ve got a great plan, a pension fund. But you have to put your work in. You can’t let the outside factors get to you.

Baseball, the way the game is going now, it’s going to get back to small ball. Everybody’s getting tested. People who took the stuff don’t want to get caught and don’t want to get named. Baseball’s coming back to being baseball. The home run hitters hit homers. Everyone else hits and runs, steals, keeps baseball exciting. The home run ball got boring. Everyone was waiting for that three-run homer.

N&A You guys played some small ball in ‘01.

TW I loved it, man. Loved it. That’s all I could do. I couldn’t hit the homer. There had to be a big gale blowing out for me to hit the homer. But, I mean, I think, for the power hitters, stick to what you know. For everyone else, do the little things that will get you to the big leagues. I don’t think these kids really know that the little things will get you far. Each player is different. You’ve got your home run hitters, your base stealers, your contact guys. All that plays into it. You’ve got to be who you are. Don’t say I’m going to be the next A-Rod. Be who you are. If you do that, you prove something to yourself. If you try to be somebody else, you’re going under somebody else’s expectations. And that’s hard to do. Ain’t going to be but so man A-Rods, whether he’s on the juice or not. Look, you can be on the juice, but if you’re not seeing the ball coming out of (the pitcher’s) hand and hitting it square, you’re not going anywhere, right? I mean, it’s wrong. I don’t condone it. But I also know that steroids aren’t hitting the baseball.