Cub Tracks’ poultry sums

Of course my feathers are ruffled. I’ve been trying to figure out how many coconuts a turkey could carry, if it was a wild turkey and didn’t come from the Austin-Nichols company. Still, tragedy tomorrow ... comedy, comedy, comedy, tonight.

Laden or unladen, eventually it all adds up, right? Right, Tom? Right, Jed? Or does this whole enterprise plummet like poor Harold? Must we play chicken with the Fates? Are we simply seduced by the glamor?

“As God is my witness ... I thought turkeys could fly ...”

Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s Cub Tracks News and Notes. As always, * means autoplay on, or annoying ads, or both (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. (In the comments section, use @ before and after your remarks @ to produce sarcasm font.)

• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Jon Lester provides meals for frontline workers. “... wherever he goes next, he’s always going to have supporters in Chicago and the surrounding area.”
• Mark Gonzales (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Chicago Cubs Q&A: Given the team’s hitting issues, is it time to re-examine Chili Davis’ departure? What would it take to acquire Blake Snell? “... the offensive stagnation in the second half of 2018, the collective collapse in 2019 and the struggles of the core players in 2020 have resulted in a situation that will take a few years to repair.”
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Anthony Rizzo’s foundation steps up for Thanksgiving. “For Thanksgiving, the foundation raised money to help send warm meals to families and staff at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago ...”
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): Weighing possibilities for Kris Bryant’s eventual departure. “... Bryant‘s Cubs tenure will eventually come to a close.”
• Jesse Rogers (ESPN*): Who is Jed Hoyer? What you need to know about the Chicago Cubs’ new president. “If there was GM draft, Jed would be a first-rounder,” one agent quipped. “He’s well equipped for this job.”
• Peter Gammons (The Athletic {$}): How Jed Hoyer’s Red Sox roots shaped him. “For almost all of us, it shaped our careers in baseball,” Hoyer recalls. “Nobody cared about the dirt or the mice or the hours.” The Athletic has a lot more Hoyer if you have a sub.
• Tony Andracki (Marquee Sports Network*): Cubs anticipating a ‘wait-and-see’ type of offseason. “This offseason might be the slowest moving of them all ...”
• Fran Spielman (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Lightfoot offers $250K break to the Cubs after season without fans that cost the Ricketts family $100 million. “Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) are throwing a bone to the billionaire family that owns the Cubs ...”

Food for Thought:

Thanks for reading!