BCB After Dark: We are good

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the late-night get-together for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come in and join us this evening. Your name is on the guest list. If you’ve got a coat we can check that for you. There are still a few good tables available. 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 won yet another shutout tonight, 6-0. It was their fifth of the season.

Of course, not all shutouts are created equal and you have to sort of discount this one since it was against. . . let’s see. . .the Padres. I mean, other than Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jake Cronenworth and Nelson Cruz, who do they have in their lineup?

Really great game by all the Cubs tonight.

Last night, I asked you who should be getting the save chances in the ninth inning for the Cubs. With 34 percent of the vote, you said “Adbert Alzolay.” In second place with 18 percent was Brandon Hughes.

On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, I don’t do a movie section. But tonight I’m going to do a special movie/jazz combo section. Those of you who want to skip that can do so now.

We lost the great singer, actor, producer and activist Harry Belafonte today at the age of 96.

I’m not going to write a tribute to Belafonte, you can find those all over the interwebs. I will say he was one of the greatest singers of the 20th Century. If there is an “inner-ring” Hall of Fame for vocalists, Belafonte belongs in there.

Belafonte wasn’t really a jazz singer, although the calypso music that he sang most often was certainly related to jazz. But he could sing jazz if he wanted to. He could also act if he wanted to and one of his films, Odds Against Tomorrow, was included in our recent BCB Winter Noir Classic. As I wrote when we were discussing that film, it was produced by Belafonte’s production company and was a passion project for him.

In Odds Against Tomorrow, Belafonte’s character is a singer in a nightclub. And he does perform this jazz track, “My Baby’s Not Around,” in the film.

Rest in power, Harry.

Welcome back to everyone who skips the jazz.

The Cubs are off to a great start to the season at 13-9. If you ask me, that’s especially impressive because other than three games with Oakland and two with Cincinnati, they’ve played teams that are either decent or better in the rest of their games. They’re not the Pirates who have been feasting on bad teams all April.

Here’s an easy question.

But I’m also going to ask you a tough question tonight. Who is the Cubs’ MVP so far? I should really be asking you this question tomorrow night as that’s the final night of an After Dark piece in April, but I don’t have another question tonight and maybe I’ll come up with something else by tomorrow.

In this vote, pitchers and position players are all equally eligible. There’s not going to be a Cy Young Award for April vote around here for you to save your pitcher plaudits for. You’ve just got to pick one Cub.

Yes, a lot of Cubs have come up big to start the season. That’s why they’re playing so well. So there are a lot of choices, But just pick one.

And feel free to tell us who you voted for in the comments and who you wish you could have voted for if you had more than one vote.

That’s it for tonight. We’re so glad you stopped in. If you checked anything, let us get that for you now. If you need a ride home, let us know. Get home safely. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow for more BCB After Dark.