BCB After Dark: I don’t know who’s on third

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the nightclub for night owls, early-risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Glad you could join us again tonight. We’ve got a prime table for you. Bring your own beverage.

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 clinched yet another series win earlier this evening with a 4-3 win over the San Diego Padres. That’s six-straight series victories for the Cubs and this one is against the team that had the best record in the National League coming into the series.

As always, you’re free to continue to discuss tonight’s game here.

Tuesday night/Wednesday morning are my light days because of all the other things that I have to do, both around here and in the rest of my life. So there’s no movie essay tonight, although you can always continue yesterday’s discussion or start a new one if you want.

But I can find a quick jazz tune on YouTube for your enjoyment and mine.

Last time I asked you who was the greatest Cubs third baseman of the expansion era, which is 1962 to the present. The winner of your vote was current Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo with 51% of the vote. Mark Grace was second with 23% and “Mr. Cub” Ernie Banks was third with 14%.

Today’s jazz track is a fun one. Rahsaan Roland Kirk was one of the true eccentric genius of jazz. He was best known for his ability to play several different instruments, often at the same time. He was also known for his wicked sense of humor and his civil rights activism.

Here is Kirk playing his own composition “Serenade to a Cuckoo,” and you can see him play more than one instrument at a time in this video from 1972. I will also mention that this song was covered by the rock band Jethro Tull on their first album.

Welcome to today’s poll question. I’m going to keep this one simple for my sake and yours. I’m asking who is the greatest Cubs player since 1962 at various positions. I’m not going to ask every position because some of them aren’t going to provide a very good discussion. But we got a really good one on the merits of Rizzo versus Grace last time and I hope we can continue this going forward.

Today’s question is “Who is the greatest Cubs third baseman of the expansion era?” There are only three candidates. The first is the Hall-of-Famer and beloved Cubs broadcaster Ron Santo, who manned third base for the Cubs from 1960 to 1973. (Although technically for our discussion here, we shouldn’t count Santo’s first two seasons which were before expansion.)

With apologies to all you Vance Law and Steve Buechele fans out there, the Cubs had a long dry spell at third base until Aramis Ramirez arrived from Pittsburgh in 2003. He remained as the Cubs third sacker until 2011.

Finally, we have the current Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant, who isn’t actually playing much third base these days. But Bryant won the Rookie of the Year in 2015 and the MVP in 2016. He’s been with the Cubs from 2015 to today. Unless there’s been a deal and I haven’t heard the news yet.

So which is it?

Thanks for stopping by. We’ll see you again Wednesday night/Thursday morning.