Cub Tracks’ still undefeated

Welcome to your weekend, and today’s episode of Cub Tracks news and notes™, featuring material from current beat writers, bloggers, and the occasional in-house habitué, moonlighting. These pieces center around #Cubs, #MiLB, and #MLB baseball. Scroll down for the links or linger for the potentially inappropriate commentary and the inevitable tweetstorm.

Friday’s game was postponed due to weather conditions, I read on my patio, where it was 90° F at 10 a.m.

“This is why we live here,” I said to the cats as I wheeled the smaller tv back inside and cranked up the stereo, ready to commence the day’s baseball-reading-and-writing. “But we do miss that place.”

“Meow,” said the big orange guy., and went to doze in the shade while I labored. The others went back inside while I made sure I had enough ice. Life is sweeter when your team wins.

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• María Paula Mijares Torres (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Baseball is back and Chicago fans are ecstatic. ‘The best part of going to the ballpark: It’s just normal.’ “Here’s to a year of surprises.”
• Jon Greenberg (The Athletic {$}): Can the Cubs be competitive while looking to the future? That’s the new plan. “For those of us who lived through it, the Cubs’ slide to near-irrelevance made sense. We saw it coming in 2018 and 2019.”
• Rick Morrissey (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): An Opening Day victory for the Cubs and the word that must not be mentioned. Hint: It’s ‘rebuild.’ “GM Jed Hoyer says he likes the product on the field but is trying to build for the future. Sound familiar?”
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib*): Key takeaways from the Cubs Opening Day win over Milwaukee. “It was an exciting game from start to finish and gave us a glimpse at what this team could look like over the course of the next six months.” Sahadev Sharma adds on {$}.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Cubs planning on going to an arbitration hearing with Willson Contreras. “... if it’s such a small difference, why not just end this thing now?” Patrick Mooney weighs in {$}.
• Andy Martinez (Marquee Sports Network*): ‘It means everything’: Alfonso Rivas relishes first Opening Day with Cubs. “There’s a lot of great players that were competing for spots. Seeing your name on that first 28 guys, it’s awesome. It is a great accomplishment and I’m just happy.”
• Cody Stavenhagen (The Athletic {$}): To understand Tigers shortstop Javier Báez, you must understand what drives him. “Any Báez story starts and ends with his late sister, Noely.” Yep. Wrote about it myself, six years ago. Great story.
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Nico Hoerner channeling Jeter with strong arm at SS. “Man, nothing shocks me when Nico does something,” said Cubs manager David Ross. Bastian has more to say about Hoerner. Meghan Montemurro has some thoughts also.
• Andy Martinez (Marquee Sports Network*): Ian Happ had some humorous advice for Hoerner after homer. “Try not to get cold after that.”
• Chris Emma (670 The Score*): After struggles with Yankees, Clint Frazier feeling rejuvenated with Cubs: ‘I feel like I’ve been here for a lot longer than a few weeks’. “It’s a big step forward for me because I feel like I kind of stayed in place the last few years and didn’t get the chance to progress. I’m excited right now.

Food for Thought:

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