ANAHEIM, Calif. — When pitching coach Tommy Hottovy took right-hander Kyle Hendricks out of his last game as a member of the Cubs last September, everyone in the packed stands at Wrigley Field and watching on TV saw the emotional moment on the mound.
But the two shared a more intimate and lighthearted exchange earlier that week.
The Cubs were in Philadelphia for Hendricks’ midweek bullpen session. Hottovy, saying he could catch Hendricks with his eyes closed, had been joking about catching that session.
When Hendricks showed up in the visitors’ bullpen at Citizens Bank Park, Hottovy was there in full catcher’s gear.
‘‘Which is a pretty funny thing,’’ Hendricks, now with the Angels, said in a news conference Friday in advance of his scheduled start against his former team Sunday. ‘‘We knew it was going to be the last one. We’ve been together for so long.’’
The first pitch whizzed over Hottovy’s head as he whiffed with his outfielder’s glove. He hadn’t been able to break in his left-handed catcher’s mitt in time.
‘‘He threw it firm,’’ Hottovy said Friday. ‘‘I think he tried to step on one. But I hadn’t gotten used to the mask, so as soon as it got up high enough, I lost it.’’
The Cubs’ trip to Anaheim — and the fateful rearrangement of the Angels’ rotation schedule that moved Hendricks’ start up a day — brought up plenty of memories from his 11 seasons with the Cubs.
There were, of course, plenty of memories on the field. Hendricks — known for his finesse and deceptive changeup, even as the industry was getting googly-eyed over velocity — was a major factor in the Cubs’ success with their last championship core.
He won the National League ERA title in 2016, was masterful in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series, started the curse-breaking Game 7 of the World Series and became known for his slow heartbeat in the biggest situations.
‘‘He’s on my Mount Rushmore of Cubs pitchers,’’ Hottovy said, citing Hendricks’ career accomplishments. ‘‘To me . . . as a human being and the time we spent together and the ups, the downs, the good and the bad, those are the things that you remember more than anything. Just grateful for my opportunity to get to be around him.’’
It was mostly ups for most of Hendricks’ time with the Cubs. And at this time of year pretty much every season, he got to feel the excitement building at Wrigley as the Cubs played meaningful games down the stretch.
‘‘It’s just such a special, unique place,’’ Hendricks said. ‘‘You don’t really feel that anywhere else that you go. So being able to put on that uniform as a home player, going out and supporting those fans in that way, it’s the most special thing you’ll ever do.’’
As the Cubs began to struggle, so did Hendricks. The organization broke up its title core in 2021, which happened to be Hendricks’ first season with an ERA higher than 4.00. He continued to evolve in the next three seasons, refining his delivery, battling a shoulder injury, tweaking the grip on his curve and pitching out of the bullpen for the first time.
Hendricks ended his tenure with the Cubs on yet another high, blanking the Reds on two hits for 7⅓ innings and exiting to a raucous standing ovation.
The Cubs honored Hendricks with a pyramid of baseballs — one for every out of his last start for them — and remarks from outfielder Ian Happ, who became the longest-tenured player on the team after Hendricks’ departure. Happ’s comments made sure everyone on the team knew just how much Hendricks had given to the organization.
‘‘Which was completely unnecessary,’’ Hendricks said. ‘‘He knows that, as far as my personality. But he’s just such a pro [and] knows what to say at the right point.’’
Now Hendricks will face Happ and the Cubs in a game for the first time. He said it reminded him of the ramp-up for the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, which featured intrasquad scrimmages.
‘‘I remember putting the changeup in play off him,’’ Happ said Saturday. ‘‘Just, like, popping it up to the shortstop and feeling like it was a huge win.’’
He’ll be trying to do more than that Sunday.
‘‘We both know what we have to do on Sunday,’’ Hendricks said of his former teammates, ‘‘but it’ll be for some bragging rights, for sure.’’