SURPRISE, Ariz. — As soon as the team bus arrives for a spring training road game, Cincinnati Reds infielder Chris Valaika drops his travel bag in his locker and heads for the field, a man on a scribbling mission.
While the rest of the team sits in the clubhouse chatting with each other, fooling with their cell phones or iPads, Valaika is gone.
Teams dress in their uniforms at home before embarking on trips, so they don't have to dress in the usually bathroom-sized, cramped visiting clubhouses.
On Tuesday morning, manager Dusty Baker sat in his office and there was raucous laughter and high-pitched voices in the clubhouse before an exhibition game against the Kansas City Royals.
"The guys are having fun, man," Baker said as he popped the cap on a bottle of water. "I love to hear that laughter."
Valaika, though, was not among the revelers. He was already walking out of the dugout, heading down the right field line. As he walked along the railing, he signed autographs all along the way, skipping nobody who asked, and on this day he signed nearly 100.
No other player from either team was anywhere to be seen.
And this is from a 26-year-old utility infielder with minimal major-league experience, a guy fighting for his big-league life for this year, trying to make the team.
"I'm nearly always the first guy out there," said the 6-0, 217-pound Californian. "It's a routine for me. I always try to get out here at least a half hour before the game.
"I like to sign autographs early, then get stretched, come back to the dugout 10 minutes before a game to regroup and get ready for the game," he said.
As for signing autographs, something many players disdain and avoid like a colonoscopy, Valaika cherishes the chance to do it.
"They are always here waiting for us, so I might as well come out," he said. "I like meeting the people, especially the kids. It is exciting for me to make their day by signing an autograph. I was there once, in their shoes, coming to spring training hoping to get one autograph."
Valaika knows other players snub autograph seekers, but laughs and said, "Y'know, it is tough for us to be out there and sign for everybody. But that's why I make a point of coming out early to walk the line and try to get everybody I can, then get ready for the game and change my focus to the game."
There are several candidates for extra infielder jobs with the Reds — Valaika, Paul Janish, Wilson Valdez, Todd Frazier.
Valaika, a third-round draft pick in 2006 out of UC/Santa Barbara, where he majored in anthropology, played 14 games with the Reds last year and hit .280 with a double and a triple among his seven hits in 25 at-bats. But his season ended prematurely in early September when he suffered a knee injury that required surgery.
This spring, playing second base, shortstop and third base, Valaika is hitting .300 (3 for 10) and drove a ball deep to right in the first inning Tuesday, a sacrifice fly that produced his team's first run. Then he singled and scored a run in his second at-bat.
"I feel healthy, No. 1, and that's the most important thing for me right now, making sure my knee is OK," he said. He came to camp early and his knee survived every test.
"I feel good playing all three positions, so right now it is a matter of getting my reps and at-bats to try to do as much as I can to make the team right out of the gate," he said.
"We have a good group of extra guys and anybody Dusty puts in does a good job," he said. "It's tough, being in my shoes as a utility guy. We have Wilson Valdez, who we traded for, we have Paul Janish, who has been established and Todd Frazier is having a great spring (three homers, two doubles among his eight hits), so it is a lot of competition, but all fun. We all pull for each other because it is all for the greater good, for the team to win.
"In my role, I just want to be consistent, show that I can play all three positions and produce wherever I hit in the lineup — second, eighth, seventh, whatever it may be — and just be a solid consistent contributor."
And, he says, he never gets writer's cramps and there are a lot of autographs left in his system.
