FAMILY, BUT CUBS AREN’T DADDIES
About that whole “Wrigley North” thing? It’s time to put a sock in it. Cubs fans like to razz Brewers fans with this nickname for American Family Field, formerly Miller Park. It used to be pretty perfect not only because of all the Cubs jerseys in the stands, but also because the visitors routinely lit up the scoreboard.
In 2015 — when they really took off — the Cubs were 8-2 in Milwaukee, including two series sweeps. In 2017, they were 7-3 in Milwaukee. In 2018, they won four of their first five games there — but the tables were about to turn.
The Cubs won the opener of a June series at Miller Park, giving them a 4-1 season record there and an utterly dominant 8-1 season record against the Brewers. But the Cubs were shut out in the last two games of the series and went 2-8 head-to-head the rest of the way, a final, embarrassing, offensively fruitless 3-1 loss coming in the Game 163 division tiebreaker at the actual Wrigley Field.
The Cubs were 3-7 in Milwaukee in 2019 and have lost 12 of their last 18 games there. Wrigley North? More like the House of Horrors. And that’s where the Cubs and their sleepy bats will be for three games beginning Monday.
This “American Family Field” thing is going to take some getting used to, but the name is the name. The nickname is another story. These days, it just plain misses the mark.
Here’s what’s happening:
MON 12
Blackhawks at Blue Jackets (6 p.m., NBCSCH)
The Hawks are 3-0 in Columbus this season, with Patrick Kane piling up six points in those games. He’ll have a great chance to add to that total now that the Jackets are focusing their entire defensive game plan on stopping Wyatt Kalynuk.
Bulls at Grizzlies (8 p.m., NBCSCH+)
OK, so it’s not quite Kareem vs. Wilt, but Nikola Vucevic vs. Jonas Valanciunas is a sneaky-good center matchup. Don’t be scared to pronounce those names correctly, folks.