Cub Tracks kicks it up

Well, simCubs fans ... it looked dark there for a while. Jon Lester the chicken man was on the verge of getting tagged with a loss in one of the best -pitched games he had this year, but the Cubs tied the game late on a Kyle Schwarber base hit and Anthony Rizzo was kind enough to offer us all deliverance in the 11th when David Bote whacked a ball up the chute with two outs and scored easily on Rizzo’s drive into he left-field corner. Dan Winkler, splendid as usual, absorbed the W in a relief role.

Those two hits were pretty much all of the highlights, but they’re the ones we need.

Today the Cubs and Rays will celebrate Independence Day by once again summoning the saucers taking up the lumber and the horsehide. We hope the Cubs can create fireworks from a few Blake Snell offerings, and that Tyler Chatwood can minimize the free passes to first base. Al will have more about the game in the game post at 2:30 p.m. CT, and then I’ll post the actual URL to the stream at 3 p.m. CT. Or you can catch the game at the BCB Media Center and also catch past games and game videos, if you want the full #simCubs experience. And speaking of experience:

Jimi once said: “I don’t play guitar. I play amplifier.”

And now, 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 here as sarcasm font.

• Rick Morrissey (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): There’s a decent chance the final score will be COVID-19, Baseball 0. “The more you look at the challenges teams face, the more you wonder how in the world they’ll make it through an entire season.”
• NBC Sports Chicago*: Cubs, MLB face ‘uncomfortable’ truth trying to pull off pandemic season. “We all want to play,” Mike Trout said. “If there’s an outbreak or something happens these next few weeks, we’ve got to reconsider.”
• Jayson Stark (The Athletic {$}): What happens if one team has to shut down? Where will MLB draw the line? “What I’m most worried about is a cluster of cases on a team,” said Dr. Zachary Binney, an epidemiologist at Emory University’s Oxford College.
• Mark Gonzales (Chicago Tribune* {$}): As the Chicago Cubs open summer workouts, pitching coach Tommy Hottovy addresses the team about his COVID-19 experience. “Manager David Ross said he asked Hottovy to speak during a team meeting on the first day of summer training about his experience as a coronavirus patient and to lend support and advice.”
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): WATCH: Javier Báez, Anthony Rizzo, and Kris Bryant crush some BP into the bleachers. “The crack of the bat, and then the sound of the ball hitting the bleachers.”
• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): How the Cubs can work around José Quintana’s freak injury. “There will be an impact on the bullpen as well,” Theo Epstein said.
• Steve Greenberg (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs’ Rizzo looks like a new man. Will he play like one, too? “Goodbye, 240s. Hello, 220s. And maybe even less than that.”
• Mark Gonzales (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Chicago Cubs first baseman Rizzo, a cancer survivor, is comfortable playing amid the pandemic: ‘As far as my body and the immune system, everything is up to par’. Rizzo said returning to the field could “capture a new fan base.”
• Maddie Lee (NBC Sports Chicago*): Race and baseball: For a young Doug Glanville, ‘Baseball was diplomacy’. “Baseball was diplomacy in my world,” Glanville said.
• Olean Times-Herald {$}): Why this Chicago Cubs super fan is walking 100 miles to Wrigley Field for patient and health worker safety. “Dr. Dave Mayer will walk from Milwaukee to Chicago this coming week ...”
• Cubs birthdays: Bill Sullivan, Chuck Tanner, Bill Tremel, Wayne Nordhagen, Dan Larson, Johnny Abrego. Also notable: Mickey Welch HOF.

Food for thought:

Thanks for reading! And Happy Fourth!