Cub Tracks’ one after 162

Here at CUB TRACKS NEWS AND NOTES™, we have news for you, four days a week. Perhaps we will have eight arms to hold you when we’re 64, but that’s still in the future, so for now, we’ll cry instead. Tomorrow never knows.

All you need is love, they said, but they were young and rich and the blue jays were in LA then.

I need an Italian Beef, wet, with sweets and mozz, at the very least. Fortunately there are plenty of other ex-Chicagoans here in the land of California grass, and such are obtainable, for a price. So too, is the California grass, and it’s legal now.

This by way of saying that time will change some judgments, but not all. Some things actually are right to start with, even if they aren’t the same degree of right for everyone. We all grasp the fabled elephant by different parts — your foie gras might be my braunschweiger might be someone else’s chopped liver.

And some things are facts, and at least theoretically, somewhat less fungible. We try to examine those uncritically. It’s a fact that the Cubs have failed to qualify for the playoffs, and that this is the last week of the season. I know, the last game is Sunday, which is the first day of the week technically, but I think that is silly and that Monday is the first day. In any event, this is the terminal six-game stretch of the season. An eight-day week, if you will.

notJed Hoyer: “The operation was a success. The patient died.”

Why do I feel like they’re gonna send out Marty Feldman to obtain the fix? Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.

No game Monday. Pittsburgh today. I don’t think the band is getting back together.

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“Taking me out of the game is something that I want to make it hard for the manager to do.” — Adrian Sampson.

• AP via ESPN*: Umpire provides explanation for wild play at end of St. Louis Cardinals-Chicago Cubs game. “Timing wasn’t on our side,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Cubs will be “Really Active” in Free Agency, but will spend “Intelligently”. “... don’t mistake that for me thinking Hoyer just revealed something incredible.” Michael Cerami amplifies. Darragh McDonlad
• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): This Chicago Cubs season at Wrigley Field saw both good times and bad — but throughout it all, the ballpark remains a special place. This Chicago Cubs season at Wrigley Field saw both good times and bad — but throughout it all, the ballpark remains a special place.
• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): What the Cubs can learn from the Cardinals’ surprising run to the postseason. “Baseball’s weird like that,” David Ross said. Jared Wyllys has more on this. Meghan Montemurro has thoughts too.
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Young arms, revived bats provide Cubs hope. “I think it shows a lot of these young guys that we can hang with these guys,” Kyle Hendricks said.
• Jared Wyllys (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Adrian Sampson makes his case to stay with Cubs’ pitching staff. “Sampson might prove to be the kind of reclamation project that helps lift next year’s pitching staff, whether he is in the rotation or coming out of the bullpen.” Jordan Bastian has words about this.
• Gordon Wittenmyer (NBC Sports Chicago*): Why Cubs’ Farm Director had toughest job in baseball in 2021. “It’s hard to imagine anyone handling a delicate and exhausting situation better than Matt Dorey has these past 18 months,” Hoyer said.
• Alexander Patt (Cubbies Crib*): Chicago Cubs History: Longtime Cubs who turned into Cardinals. “Jon Lester is one of many fan favorites from the North Side to eventually find his way to St. Louis.”

Food for thought:

Thanks for reading.