Cubs TV is now on YouTube

The Cubs announced their plan for their own TV network earlier this year and one of the questions I frequently hear about the new network is what the Cubs will air beyond baseball games. We might have gotten a bit of that answer today with the Cubs’ expanded YouTube channel, and it’s incredible.

The Cubs relaunched their channel Monday morning with 10 new content series and 17 videos. The videos vary in length from 90-second shorts that include instructions for Cubs-inspired craft projects to 40-minute long documentaries on great moments in Cubs history, like Kerry Wood’s 20 strikeout game, and everything in between. They’ll be dropping new content every Thursday.

I spent some time previewing the channel and I’ll share a few of my favorite video links below so you can begin exploring. It was really hard to limit myself to just a few videos.

Insider looks for the serious baseball fan

If you’re familiar with my series called Sara’s Snapshots, you’ll immediately understand why I gravitated to a series called “The Breakdown” where you can see Cubs players talk through key moments in games. Check out this 10-minute look at David Bote’s Ultimate Grand Slam:

Player profiles

Pedro Strop is probably the most interesting man in the universe. Admit it, you always wanted to know how Pedro Strop spends the offseason. Me too. Your wait is over:

A whole lot of Bryzzo

I was laughing out loud watching everyone’s newest favorite game show “Bae vs. Ballplayer” where Anthony Rizzo and Jessica Bryant compete to see who knows Kris Bryant better for the grand prize of is a Kris Bryant fleece throw. Just watch, you’ll laugh too:

Highlights

The Cubs have a lot of highlight reel material, everything from magical slides, to Albert Almora Jr. and his defensive wizardry, to videos like the one below that highlights the top 10 greatest comebacks of the Joe Maddon era. I imagine there will be a lot more videos like these:

Javy Báez and puppies

I’m not really sure what to call this category, but there is a three and a half minute long video where Javy Báez answers a kiddo’s questions while he plays with puppies. It is perfect and exactly what I needed today:

You really should check out the entire channel. It’s awesome.

However, the brilliance of this channel goes far beyond Javy playing with puppies (although seriously, that made my Monday so much better. I imagine it made your Monday better too). The Cubs have clearly set this channel up to celebrate their players’ personalities and some of the behind the scenes highlights of Cubs’ baseball. It is exactly what baseball needs.

It feels like every few months there is a serious baseball think piece about the lack of superstars in the game and MLB is on a seemingly endless quest to save seconds in the hopes of solving “pace of play” concerns. I’ve always found this aggravating because shorter intentional walks and a pitch clock never struck me as the keys to helping new fans fall in love with baseball. Javy Báez, his magical slides and puppies, on the other hand, just might.

I’m already looking forward to Thursday to see what videos the Cubs come up with next.