Odds and ends that don't fit anywhere else but are too good to leave out.

Palindromic baseball names (Tribune 8/3/94). Including what has to be one of the all-time editing errors: in a story about palindromes, they misspelled the name "Hannah"!

A true Cubs fan's obituary (Tribune 06/2005).

From 2017 NLDS Game 5 Inning 5 (New York Times)

The "All Chicagoland Streets" Team

and the names in bold are also on the "All Swift/Purple/Red Line" Team!!!

* = Cubs player!

Starting 9:

1B - Mark Grace*

2B - Willy Randolph

SS - Addison Russell*

3B - Howard Johnson

OF - Gary Sheffield

OF - Carl Crawford

OF - Andre Dawson*

C   - Wil(l)son Contreras*

P   - Ryan Dempster*

Pitchers:

Wade Davis*

Edwin Jackson*

David Wells

Justin Wilson*

Bench:

Matt Adams

Lawrence (Yogi) Berra

Wel(l)ington Castillo*

Will and Jack Clark

Brandon Crawford

Jody Davis*

Chris and Khris (sorry Rajai....you've been cut) Davis

George Foster

Josh Harrison

Elston Howard (counts twice!)

Ryan and Frank Howard

Reggie Jackson

Pat Jarvis

Junior Lake*

Craig Monroe

Michael Morse

Brock (and Jace and Shane and Joc*) Peterson

Herb (and Claudell and U L) Washington

Coaches: Chili Davis*

               Dave Clark*

Mgr: Joe Morgan

GM: Dallas Green

(as of 5/15/21)

Frank Robinson, the infield fly, and the search for meaning

By James Schapiro

06/10/2020

In 2003, Montreal Expos manager Frank Robinson walked into an angry group of his own players and told them they were wrong.

Click here to read and see the full story.

Baez steals a run May 27, 2021

By Jake Mintz, 5/31/21

It has now been five days since Báez broke the internet, the space-time continuum and the rules of baseball. Many of us have done other things with our lives since that day, and some of us have even watched more baseball games, but I’m here to remind you how utterly bananas the entire thing was and to ensure that the wildest play of the year so far endures at the forefront of your mind.

Let’s watch it again:

There is a multitude of wonderful things about this play, but one of the first things that strikes me is how innocuous of a situation this was. Runner on third with two down, slow grounder to the hot corner, third baseman whips it across the diamond. We’ve seen this play happen a bazillion times. Javy conjured wonder from the mundane.

To get the un-fun part of the conversation out of the way: Yes,Pirates first baseman Will Craig completely bungled this. Like, absolutely one of the more astounding brain farts in baseball history. He’s helped by the fact that this was in May and not a meaningful playoff game or anything, but the Báez gymnastics were only possible because Craig didn’t touch first base. 

My dude! Will Craig! Just touch first base!

This play is so good because you can show it to someone who doesn’t watch a lot of baseball, and they instantly know that something super weird is afoot. Similarly, baseball obsessives like me can dork out endlessly about the intricacies of the play. Did Javy know what he was doing? Or was he just goofing around and got incredibly lucky?

The entire thing was such a surprise that Javy himself celebrated his mischievousness mid-play before remembering that he actually had to run to first base. If Pirates second baseman Adam Frazier were just standing on first and that throw from the catcher were on line, then Báez would be out and the highlight would not have taken off.

This not only is the type of baseball play that I had never seen, but also it’s something I had never even considered. Unparalleled in baseball history, this circus act was a once-in-a-lifetime event, the Halley’s Comet of baserunning.

It was practically impossible, only brought to life by a hilarious confluence of empty-headedness from Craig and creativity from Báez. We’ll never see it again, so watch the video 100,000 more times.

The End of an Era October 3, 2021

For Cubs fans everywhere, the 2021 season is officially over. And it also marks the end of the decade I’ll call “The Rizzo Era”.

Yes…..Anthony Rizzo joined the Cubs in 2012, the nadir of this century, when they went 61-101. He was there when we won 103 games and reached the highest high on Wednesday, November 2, 2016. And he was with us through most of the 2021 season, when we again hit rock bottom. The chart below clearly displays this rise and fall.

We felt a collective gut punch when KB, Javy, and Rizzo were all gone within a few days (though we could all see it coming).  After having lost Schwarber and Lester in the 2020 off-season, the WS champs were no more.