Cub Tracks jolly olde

Welcome to today’s episode of Cub Tracks news and notes™, a greatest-hits collection of Chicago-style beat writers and bloggers, ground from #Cubs, #MiLB, and #MLB baseball, overheated, steeped in writers’ tears, and then cold-brewed overnight for maximum flavor.

There was no Cubs baseball Friday but there was plenty to talk about, what with a transoceanic series coming up, and so, here we are once again, with a Weekend Edition of Cub Tracks. I promise you we have and will have excellent coverage of the event and the issues of the day, along with our usual small tastes of the future.

Sunday’s edition, which will be up an hour earlier than our usual post time, will have postgame data from that day’s contest as well as some nuggets from Saturday. It’ll sort of straddle the days, an idea made necessary by the temporal differences between Europe and the States. Just FYI.

Okay? Okay. On with the show.

Chicago Tribune*: Photos: Cubs and Cardinals arrive for the London Series. It’s a big deal. Looks so cool.

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• Matt Monagan (MLB.com*): Watch the Cubs play cricket at Wrigley Field. “There’s a genuine endless beauty to baseball,” Felix White says.
• Ken Maguire (AP*): Britain eyes boost for baseball with return of MLB, new youth programs. “In a country that has just 60 baseball clubs and a limited Little League system, five new youth programs popped up this spring.” Maddie Lee has more of this.
• Larry Hawley (WGN9*): Cubs playing their best baseball of 2023 as they arrive in London. “What looked like a season on the brink two weeks ago has flipped thanks to a strong stretch of play by the group.”
• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): ‘There’s a camaraderie we have.’ For Chicago Cubs fans who made the trek to London, the trip is unique — and bittersweet.

“Being a Cubs fan is a special and different thing. I don’t think you can say the same thing for the Cardinals. I’ve watched my parents with Cardinals fans and it’s not the same. There’s a camaraderie that we have that’s completely different.”

• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Cubs are back in London — for first time since 1880s. “... the circumstances will be much different than the late 19th century.”

“Men, women and children were huddled together in the first cabin,” Chicago outfielder Jimmy Ryan penned in his diary on March 9, 1889. “Some singing, some joking, but the greater majority, praying.”

• Mike Axisa (CBS Sports*): Cubs-Cardinals London Series: Four things to know about 2023 international series, how to watch, prediction. “For the first time since 2019 and only the second time ever, Major League Baseball will be played in London this weekend.”
• Jake Crouse (MLB.com*): London is calling Cubs for games against rival Cardinals. Jack London? Bobby London? It’s hard to be sure.
• Kade Kistner (Fan Nation*): FOCO Launches Chicago Cubs London Series Bobblehead Collection. “The collection features eight bobbleheads of players and mascots, with three of them being for the Chicago Cubs.”
• Paul Lukas (UniWatch*): The Cubs will be wearing ad patches on their jerseys this weekend. For now, those are just for the London Series.
• Jeff Agrest (Chicago Sun-Times*): Yankees TV voice Michael Kay diving into Cubs-Cardinals for ESPN broadcast Sunday. “What can Cubs fans unfamiliar with Kay expect? Considering the first pitch is scheduled for 9:10 a.m., a wake-up call is coming. “I get into the game,” he said.”
• James Neveau (NBC Sports Chicago*): Fans chant Stroman’s name during rally with Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts. “I’m really excited Marcus wants to stay,” he said during an interview with 670 the Score’s Mully and Haugh Show. More Hoyer from Brett Taylor.

Discussions of a Stroman extension have intensified in recent weeks as Stroman went public with the status of negotiations, saying the Cubs “weren’t interested” in exploring an extension earlier this month.

Jed Hoyer said that he would keep the status of negotiations in-house, but later said that he was happy that Stroman wanted to stay.

“He really wants to be here,” he said in an interview on the Mully and Haugh Show. “That’s a great thing. I feel like he’s been so positive for us since he got here.”

• Tony Andracki (Marquee Sports Network*): The Cubs rotation has a new pregame routine and it could be the secret to their success. “We all go down pre-start,” Drew Smyly said. “When I go down to get warmed up for the game, everybody comes and watches. And then we all walk back into the dugout together. That happens every day.”
• Newschain: Chicago Cubs pitcher Javier Assad is all business as MLB hits London. “When we get the chance to explore and visit we definitely will do it and enjoy it and get to talk to the fans and get to know the area, but when it comes time to play we’re looking to have the same result and getting the victory and staying focused,” the right-hander told the PA news agency.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Cade Horton does it again and has to be entering some big prospect conversations. “... there is still a long way to go...”
• Tony Andracki (Marquee Sports Network*): An under-the-radar prospect to keep an eye on in the Cubs farm system. “A guy I’ve really enjoyed tracking this year is a guy named Moises Ballesteros,” Carter Hawkins said.
• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): Nico Hoerner is the type of leader the Cubs needed to begin turning their season around. “I just always appreciated guys who were always available and observant of the game, regardless of how things were going for themselves personally,” Hoerner said.
• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): How the Cubs’ 32-year-old journeyman went from afterthought to essential. “I don’t know if wisdom is the word, but the longer you play, the more you understand the big picture a little bit more,” Tauchman said.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): How about Christopher Morel for the Home Run Derby? I’d have to agree that it would be a good thing.
• Robert Channick (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Chicago Cubs prevail in lawsuit alleging Wrigley renovations violated accessibility requirements for wheelchair-bound fans. “The decision follows a one-week April trial, and comes nearly six years after Chicago attorney David A. Cerda filed a lawsuit against the team on behalf of his son, David F. Cerda, a lifelong Cubs fan who is confined to a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy.”

Food for Thought:

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