BCB After Dark: Cubbie power!

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the happening spot for night owls, early-risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Good of you to stop by before we go dark for the weekend. There’s no cover charge tonight. The dress code is relaxed too, but keep your pants on. Or at least keep your camera off. 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.

Last night I asked you to give the Cubs’ offseason a letter grade and 38 percent of you gave the Cubs’ front office a “B.” In second place was a “C” grade with 37 percent of the vote. Only three percent gave them an “A” and only five percent gave them an “F.”

Here’s the place where I talk about jazz and movies. You’re free to skip ahead to the end if you want. You won’t hurt my feelings.

Tonight we’ve got a jazz performance from Germany in 1997 featuring some really big names like Milt Jackson on Vibraphone, Benny Golson on tenor sax, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass, Art Farmer on trumpet and others. But I want to call attention to the man they introduce at the beginning of the performance, Toots Thielemans.

Thielemans’ distinction in the jazz world is that he was certainly the greatest master of the jazz harmonica who ever lived. Yeah, I know there aren’t a lot of jazz harmonica players, but that just makes Thielemans even that more impressive.

Also, if you haven’t heard of Thielemans before, I can promise you that you’ve heard his music before. Beyond playing on the soundtracks of such movies soundtracks as Midnight Cowboy, The Getaway (and others) and playing on albums with Paul Simon, James Taylor, Billy Joel (and others), Thielemans’ harmonica is what was heard at the start of every episode of Sesame Street for 40 years. So most of you heard Thielemans play before your first day of school.

So here’s Thielemans and all those other greats playing “Bags Groove.”

I like to try to start a movie discussion here on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, but no great idea is coming to me today. I certainly don’t want to talk about that whole Oscars controversy. I’ve always said I only care about the Academy Awards as trivia, and I find it interesting that literally no one predicted that CODA would take the top prize as Best Picture until maybe about six weeks ago. Even when the nominations were announced, every article that I could find had the race between The Power of the Dog and Belfast with some saying that Dune, Don’t Look Up or Licorice Pizza had a chance. A few even touted Drive My Car, which won Best International Feature instead. I’m sure I didn’t read every article predicting a winner, but no one I saw had CODA winning in February.

But I think people missed CODA because very few people saw it in a theater and most voters watched it for the first time on Apple TV+ after the nominations were announced.

So I have two topics of discussion. Did you think the right film won? And the second question is, what kind of film makes you get out of your house and go to a theater and what kind of film do you say “I’ll wait until I can watch it at home”?

This is a real issue for the industry as the line between movies and television becomes blurred. What makes you actually go out and see a movie in a theater?

For me, there are a lot of factors. Sometimes I go to a theater just to be out with my wife and I’ll just go see whatever I think is the best film playing. Sometimes I take my daughter out because it’s something she wants to see or something that I think she’d like.

Then of course, I try to see the Marvel movies in theaters because I’m a totally sucker for them. However, I have not seen all of them in theaters—sometimes I just don’t have the free time to see them until they come out on streaming.

So what makes you get out of your house and see a movie in a theater?

Welcome back to everyone who skips the jazz and movies.

With Seiya Suzuki hitting a home run today, I thought it would be a good idea to ask you who is going to lead the Cubs in home runs in 2022.

I thought I’d already asked this poll question, but actually, I asked you who you thought would lead the Cubs in home runs in 2021. It was almost exactly a year ago. And who did you think would lead the team in home runs? Take a look!

Not one of you correctly predicted that Patrick Wisdom would lead the team in home runs! Sure, he wasn’t an actual choice that I gave you to vote for, but no one voted “Someone else” either.

Ian Happ finished second on the team in home runs, and only seven percent of you voted for him.

The winner was Joc Pederson, which is a reminder that you should never put too much weight on what happens in Spring Training.

So if form holds, someone like Robel Garcia, Greg Deichmann or Narcisco Cook will lead the Cubs in home runs this season. If you agree, then vote “Someone else” in the comments.

But who will lead the Cubs in home runs in 2022?

Thank you so much for stopping by. We’re going to close down the bar for the weekend now. Please remember to take your personal belongings. Tip your waitstaff. Get home safely. And join us again next week for more BCB After Dark.