Cub Tracks’ votes are counted

Before we jump into the rest of Cub Tracks I wanted to take a moment to share a more personal link. As you know, our fellow writer Duane Pesice who normally runs this column has been sidelined due to illness. His friends have been helping take care of his feline companions while he’s away, but they’ve set up a GoFundMe to help mitigate the costs of their care in Duane’s absence. Please consider donating something if you would like, I know it would mean a lot to Duane, and to us at BCB. Thanks!

Obviously, the big news of the week has been the Hall of Fame and its myriad voting problems, with many detractors arguing that it seems ludicrous to leave out some of the greatest players of the game (in most cases they are arguing specifically about Pete Rose and Barry Bonds) and that without those players the Hall of Fame is not truly complete.

I won’t take a side on this, as there are plenty of valid reasons both for and against leaving out certain players, but as we’ll see in the links below this discussion has certainly touched the legacy of former Cub Sammy Sosa and others of his home run era.

Let’s take a look at what’s going on in Cubs-themed news, kicking it off with some tweets.

We start social links with a sad note, that co-host of UK Cubs Fans, Joe Francis, has passed away. He is remembered beautifully in this thread, and there’s also information for UK Cubs fans who want to attend a memorial, as well as a GoFundMe page.

The Cubs unveiled some changes to their ops and scouting departments this week.

Ian Happ’s opinion on Hall of Fame voting is a solid segue into our links:

• I shared this yesterday in Outside the Confines, but it bears another share since there is a Cubs angle to it, as Tom Verducci discusses why integrity still matters to Hall of Fame voters.
• Over at Cubbies Crib, Jake Misener looks at how the market for Freddie Freeman may ultimately make Anthony Rizzo some team’s second choice.
• Bleacher Nation’s Brett Taylor takes a deeper look at the Cubs’ prospect camp we first mentioned in Tuesday’s post.
• Steve Greenberg at the Chicago Sun-Times laments the exclusion of players like Bonds, Clemens, and Sosa from the Hall.
• Jordan Bastian puts a spotlight directly on Sosa, who appeared on just over 18% of voter ballots in his final year.
• Over at the Chicago Tribune, Paul Sullivan likewise looks at the legacy of those players who missed the cut.
• George Castle memorializes Les Grobstein.

Cubs Birthdays: Jessie Hollins; Bob Borkowski; Bob Barrett; and Otis Clymer.

Food for Thought:

Thanks for reading. Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the opinions of writers whose work is linked in this series of articles. We try to present a balanced view, and let the facts speak for themselves.