BCB After Dark: The Young Guns are here

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the dive bar for night owls, early-risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Please check your hat and coat. Bring your own beverage. Be sure to tip your waitstaff.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

The Cubs have now won four of their last five games with a 6-3 win over the Nationals earlier tonight. The win puts the Cubs over .500 at 21-20 and in second place in the division. I’ve said it before, but while this Cubs team may only be just “so-so,” that may be enough to win the NL Central. And then anything can happen in the playoffs.

Feel free to discuss the game below if you want.

Last time I asked you what we should be calling the Cleveland Baseball Team next season. The winner, with 35% of the vote, was “Spiders.” But pretty much every choice had some support. “Rocks” or “Rockers” was second with 17%, “Guardians” got 12%, “Naps” got 8%, “Buckeyes” 7% and “Cleveland Baseball Team” also got 7%, but no one took me up on my offer to explain the reasoning behind that name. Technically, “Something else” was third with 16%.

Tuesday is the day I do a more abbreviated BCB After Dark. So there’s no movie stuff and I’ll keep the jazz to a minimum.

I heard a modern version of the Dizzy Gillespie bebop classic “A Night in Tunisia” on the SiriusXM as I was picking up my daughter from school today. It was fine, but it couldn’t compare to the original versions by Dizzy himself. Or at least the early recordings—the original version is certainly lost to the US recording ban from 1942 to 1944.

So here’s Dizzy Gillespie playing “A Night in Tunisia” [VIDEO] in a recording from 1946.

Today’s poll question is about the great job the young pitchers on the Cubs are doing this season. Keegan Thompson got his second win in relief earlier this evening. Adbert Alzolay got the win on Monday. Tommy Nance was perfect in his MLB debut on Monday. Justin Steele and Dillon Maples have been getting big outs all year long.

After years of hearing that the Cubs farm system can’t develop pitchers, we’re seeing several of them blossom before our eyes.

So today’s question is which rookie Cubs pitcher are you most excited about? I’m not sure if Dillon Maples technically qualifies as a rookie under the “number of days on the roster” rule, but he does qualify in that he hadn’t throw 50 major league innings before 2021 so I’m including him here. Alzolay used up his rookie eligibility earlier this season, but this is still his rookie season.

So which Cubs rookie pitcher are you most excited to see on the mound?

I hope I see you again tomorrow night.