Cub Tracks’ groucho marxism

Welcome to today’s episode of Cub Tracks news and notes™. Here we have material from current beat writers, bloggers, and the occasional in-house habitué, moonlighting. These pieces center around #Cubs, #MiLB, and #MLB baseball.

“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” — Karl Marx.

Hear ye! Hear ye! Regardless of the seeming optimism generated by Tony Clark and Rob Manfred, it’s been obvious to me for some time that the two sides aren’t close and that a labor stoppage is all but certain. And that the Cubs planned for it. (The Cubs are in fact major players in this narrative, with anti-tanking and service-time measures on the table.)

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” — Peter Drucker.

That’s good management, in the business sense, identifying an issue, and creating a strategy to counter it. Even if you are a major player in how these issues were developed and how they are defined. Hell, even then.

Extra credit:

1. What is ‘tank’?

2. Define ‘management’.

The players, standing in for the ‘proletariat’ (working class) in this edition of the age-old class conflict, are struggling to have some control over the means of production, in which they assume the ‘bourgeois’ status their upper-middle-class presence points to. Ownership is beyond those class definitions. In fact they could be said to have no class. In this case, they are assuming the role of ‘bourgeoisie’, as they control the means of production, i.e., the players. Life isn’t as two-dimensional as even a cursory study of Marx’ Manifesto would have one believe. Some are more equal than others, and they are all family.

“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” — Julius Marx

Both are in business creating jobs for lawyers, but this is not unusual, as the lawyers in society have long since managed to make social strata lawyers all the way down, whether you keep in shape chasing ambulances, coin-flipping, or rattling your jewelry. In any case, you’re running down your dream.

“The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.” — Karl Marx

The conflict therefore has resonance for society writ large (preferably in dry-erase marker if crayons are lacking, or maybe chemtrails?). Cub Tracks apologizes for being so damn serious on a Thursday and reading so many damn books and is going to its room now to play Sid Meier’s version of the eternal conflict. Anything else would be нецивилизованный uncivilized.

“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them... well, I have others.” — Julius Marx

As usual, * 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. In the text body. It doesn’t work in the headlines.)

• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Turns out there was already a ‘Cleveland Guardians’ – And now they’re suing the Baseball Team. “... you should buy the rights to everything that we have that you’ve made valueless, because right now, my clients are getting questions about starting pitching.’” Manny Rodriguez bought his pop a car.
• Duane Pesice (Cubbies Crib*): Uncertainty, fear overshadow the World Series. “… the business of baseball is going to be the main character of the coming offseason…”
• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): From Joc Pederson’s pearls to Martin Maldonado’s Twitter game, our postseason power rankings of former Chicago Cubs entering the World Series. “... Maddux turned to Chicago Tribune baseball writer Jerome Holtzman and said, “See you at work tomorrow.””
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): Anthony Rizzo inspired Joc Pederson’s blonde hairdo. “Not sure if he fact-checked that, or where it came from, but he’d always be saying it.”
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Forecasting the Cubs’ 2022 40-man roster. “To have a sense of how Chicago will proceed, a good place to start is examining the foundation in place.”
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): Cubs will ‘almost certainly’ shop Willson Contreras sans extension. “... the context around the decision shifted as a result of those other trades and the timing of this whole thing.” References Sahadev Sharma {$}.
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): Why DH coming to NL increases Contreras’ value to Cubs. “I think he’s an elite offensive player,” Cubs president Jed Hoyer said of Contreras this month. “But it’s hard to be an elite offensive player when your legs are gone.”
• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Trent Giambrone’s long road to his major-league debut with the Chicago Cubs included taking a pass on drag racing and responding to a devastating personal loss. “I lied to be able to get him to play ball,” his mother, Theresa, told the Tribune, chuckling.
• Marc Severson (Cubbies Crib*): Giving former Chicago Cubs broadcaster Jack Brickhouse some love. “Hey hey!”

Today in Cubs history:

• 2016 - In the first World Series game played at Wrigley Field in 71 years, the Indians eke out a 1-0 victory over the Cubs in Game 3 of the 2016 World Series. Pinch-runner Michael Martinez scores the only run in the 7th when he is driven in from third base by pinch-hitter Coco Crisp’s single. Cody Allen ends the game by striking out Ben Zobrist with two runners in scoring position. (BBRef)

Food for Thought:

Thanks for reading.