Our treasures are buried deep, like the ledes of most of my articles.
The Cubs continue on in their seemingly shambolic fashion and we continue to document the results. Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Willson Contreras, and Zach Davies have put their X’s on a document, at press time, The 2025 lineup looks ship-shape so far, too.
Ian Happ and the Cubs couldn’t agree, and he’ll be the first Cubs arb hearing since 2018. And in my opinion, only Tom Waits and Gordon Lightfoot (of living persons) should sing sea shanties.
Thanks for understanding.
Here’s Cub Tracks News and Notes, your every-other-day-except-on-weekends escape from the humdrum. 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.)
Congratulations to the Báez family on their new addition! https://t.co/4vCQoV4Rdc
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) January 14, 2021
“‘Yes,’ Bill Veeck said, ‘I knew as soon as I heard you that the fans in the bleachers and the fans in the luxury boxes knew that they could sing better than you. If you had a good singing voice, you would intimidate them and they would not join in.’ — Harry Caray.
Just a matter of time before Rob Manfred is shown the door and Theo Epstein is running Major League Baseball #Cubs pic.twitter.com/ywq2kOU231
— Crawly's Cubs Kingdom (@crawlyscubs) January 14, 2021
“... we need to find a way to get more action in the game, get the ball in play more often, allow the players to show their athleticism some more. Give the fans more of what they want.” — Theo Epstein.
The #Cubs have added a TON of young SS talent in the last two years.
— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) January 15, 2021
Cristian Hernandez (2021 IFA) - 17 years old
Reggie Preciado (Darvish Trade) - 17
Yeison Santana (Darvish Trade) - 20
Ed Howard (2020 Draft) - 18
Kevin Made (2019 IFA) - 18https://t.co/wiPjfiLx5E
The Voice of the @sbcubs Darin Pritchett, @961Sportsbeat talked with the Cubs owner Andrew Berlin and #MWL President Dick Nussbaum https://t.co/fmtl7tM8ET
— MWL Archives (@mwlarchives) January 14, 2021
- Gordon Wittenmyer (NBC Sports Chicago*): Theo’s next curse-busting task biggest yet: Fixing baseball. “For his next trick, he’ll try to put the toothpaste back in the tube.” Cubs Talk covers this. [AUDIO]. Paul Sullivan has thoughts about this. Russell Dorsey covers it also. Sahadev Sharma opines {$}.
- Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): What would the 2021 Cubs Convention be like this year? Since there won’t be one, we can only imagine. “Of course, if the Cubs really wanted to keep the tradition alive, they could always hold a virtual Cubs Convention with question-and-answer seminars held on Zoom.”
- Jesse Sanchez (MLB.com*): Cubs to land five-tool shortstop from DR. “... the club has agreed to a deal with shortstop Cristian Hernandez.” “... the 17-year-old resembles a young Alex Rodriguez and has a build similar to Manny Machado at the same age.” More by Tim Stebbins. Evan Altman elaborates.
- Maddie Lee (NBC Sports Chicago*): Cubs’ all-time best international signings, in 5 categories. “Some of the biggest stars in MLB right now – take Fernando Tatís Jr. for example – have joined the league as international signees.”
- Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): Danny Hultzen retires, staying with Cubs in front office. “... Hultzen will be a pitching development assistant.”
- Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): How Harry Caray started ‘Take Me Out’ tradition. “That is the only song I know the words to,” Caray was quoted as saying.
- Jeff Agrest (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Welcome to the next golden age of Chicago sports broadcasting. “... the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks all have a TV announcer working for a national network, too.”
Food for Thought:
If Wormholes Are Lurking in Our Universe, This Is How We Could Find Themhttps://t.co/75G7urlRI6
— ScienceAlert (@ScienceAlert) January 15, 2021
"If we were 100% sure that what we are seeing is a new particle, that would be huge. That would be revolutionary in physics."https://t.co/DCk1mOzIMP
— Futurism (@futurism) January 15, 2021
“We’re seeing things already that we just did not expect. We’re all incredibly lucky to be doing this at this moment in time.”
— Science News (@ScienceNews) January 15, 2021
https://t.co/jVSoXXPovf
Thanks for reading!