Cubs take stage:
NL Central leaders will have large contingent
Chicago’s first-half success is set to be on full display in representation at the All-Star Game.
Joe Maddon, like so many baseball people, will use the fourday All-Star break to get away from the game.
The Chicago Cubs manager and his wife, Jaye, plan a trip to a resort in Florida to relax and have fun. However, Maddon will make time July 12 to tune in to at least part of the telecast of the All-Star Game from Petco Park in San Diego.
“I’m going to make sure to watch the pregame introductions, and I’m going to really enjoy seeing all of those Chicago Cubs players lined up along the foul line with the National League team,” Maddon said with a smile. “It’s going to be a proud moment for me, a proud moment for those players, a proud moment for the organization and a proud moment for Cubs fans every year.”
The Cubs figure to have as many or more players than any other team at the 87th Midsummer Classic. That would be quite fitting since the Cubs have been the dominant story of the season’s first half while taking another run at a World Series title that has eluded the franchise since 1908.
The Cubs have maintained the best record in the major leagues for almost every day of the season. They built a double-digit lead in the National League Central by June 6, particularly impressive since the division houses the teams with the three best regularseason records in the major leagues a year ago — the St. Louis Cardinals (100-62), Pittsburgh Pirates (98-64) and Cubs (97-65).
Barring a collapse, the Cubs should win their first NL Central title since 2008.
The most impressive part of the Cubs’ first half has been that they have lived up to and perhaps even exceeded even the greatest of expectations.
Most oddsmakers made the Cubs the favorite to win the World Series at the start of spring training after an offseason in which right fielder Jason Heyward, second baseman Ben Zobrist and right-handed pitcher John Lackey were added in free agency.
The Cubs were inundated with the news media every day throughout their spring camp in Mesa, Ariz., as everyone wanted to know if this was the year the franchise could get to the Fall Classic for the first time since 1945. The players found T-shirts that read “Embrace The Target” draped over the chairs in front of their lockers in Mesa on the day spring training opened, and that has been the Cubs’ mantra.
“I really think it was important that we met all the expectations head on,” Maddon said. “You can’t run from it. They were going to be there. So why hide? And I think that it has really paid off. Our guys have gone out and played great baseball all season.”
A number of teams have gone to spring training as a popular choice to win the World Series in recent years, such as the 2012 Miami Marlins, 2013 Toronto Blue Jays and 2015 San Diego Padres, only to fall flat.
What makes the Cubs different is they gained confidence last season by beating the Pirates in the NL wild-card game on the road and knocking off the Cardinals in four games in the best-offive NL Division Series before being swept in four games by the New York Mets in the NL Championship Series.
“We have a good team,” Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “I think we all came out of last season knowing that we could have gone further last year and that we were going to come back and try to do it this year.”
The Cubs also have a wellbalanced roster. Going into the
final day of June, Chicago was first in the major leagues in runs allowed per game, third in runs scored per game and first in defensive efficiency, which is the percentage of batted balls, excluding home runs, that are turned into outs.
“We have one of those teams where all the pieces just seem to fit perfectly,” Rizzo said. “We’ve got a good mix of veteran players and younger players, both in the lineup and on the pitching staff.
“And we all really like each other. It’s a good atmosphere. (Maddon) obviously sets the tone because he’s a really fun guy, but everyone in here really enjoys playing the game. It’s a long season, and it’s a lot easier to get through it if you’re having fun.”
The Cubs have been winning so much that there was cause for alarm when they had their first poor week of the season, getting swept at home by the Cardinals on June 20-22 and then losing three of four in Miami.
The Cubs bounced back with a three-game sweep of the Reds in Cincinnati in impressive fashion.
Third baseman Kris Bryant become the first player in major league history to hit three home runs and two doubles in a game June 27.
The next night, utility player Javier Baez became the third player to hit a grand slam in the 15th inning or later, connecting in the 15th to win a game in which resourceful Maddon used three relief pitchers to play left field after emptying his bench.
Rizzo capped the sweep by hitting the first inside-the-park home run of his career, which drove in three runs, in the finale.
But then the Mets swept the Cubs last weekend in their first series since the NLCS, so it’s understandable why Chicago fans might get a little panicky. Their hearts have been broken many times during the 108-year championship drought.
Rizzo, though, thought some media members were in a bit of rush to predict the beginning of the Cubs’ demise.
“It’s almost the All-Star break, and it’s the time of the year where I guess you kind of run out of stories,” he said. “So that was a story. I’m sure if another team, like say the Cleveland Indians, would have lost six of seven after getting off to a hot start, then everyone would have been asking what was wrong with the Cleveland Indians.”
Conversely, the All-Star Game is a time for plenty of stories, and many likely will center on the Cubs contingent during the festivities in San Diego.
In the last voting before the team was announced, the Cubs infield was leading the NL at their positions — Rizzo, Zobrist, Bryant and shortstop Addison Russell, and center fielder Dexter Fowler was leading among outfielders. Right-hander Jake Arrieta and left-hander Jon Lester figured to be on it. (This issue published before the team was known.)
“Good teams have good players, and we have a lot of them that deserve to be in the All-Star Game, and it’d be a lot of fun if a bunch of us were there,” said Bryant, who would enjoy a homecoming of sorts because he starred at the University of San Diego.
It would be the second All-Star Game for Bryant and first for Russell, Fowler and Arrieta.
“It’s everyone’s dream to go to the All-Star Game,” Russell said. “To have a bunch of Cubs there would be great, a whole lot of fun.”