Veteran Bourn proving good fit with D-backs

The dry heat of the desert suits Michael Bourn well. A few months into his tenure with the D-backs, Bourn has proven a bright spot in an otherwise bleary season for Arizona.

Bourn has been a nice addition for his new ballclub in more ways than one. The biggest credit to his name comes in his defensive prowess and speed, but the 33-year-old’s work at the plate has surprised even the man himself.

That’s because Bourn had a more tumultuous beginning to the season than most. To start, he was cut by the Braves on the last day of Spring Training, ostensibly to make room on Atlanta’s roster for fellow veteran Jeff Francoeur. And so the two-time All-Star and Gold Glover spent Opening Day on his living-room couch, without a team for the first time in his 11-year career.

“‘I guess anything can happen, and I just have to take it with a grain of salt,'” Bourn recalled thinking. “‘There’s nothing I can do about it.’

“[Braves brass] were saying how much they didn’t want to do it, but it was done. I had to go back and try to start from scratch. One thing about life is that when something is taken away from you, you realize how much it means to you. That’s what happened to me.”

It would be nearly two weeks of sitting at home before Bourn had a job again, this time with the Toronto Blue Jays’ Class A Advanced club in Dunedin, Fla. And yet, he’d barely had time to unpack his …

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