Cub Tracks’ light of yesterdays

#Cubs, #MLB, and #MiLB news, notes, and commentary, four days a week, rain or shine. The present ain’t much. The past is past, the future unknown. Go Cubs.

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. No artificial intelligences were deployed, employed, entranced, or embalmed in the commission of this missive (apparently I might be training some though). Cub Tracks eagerly awaits the advent of robotic umpires and has already amended the three laws. The going is weird. Cub Tracks turned pro a long time ago.

Cub Tracks. Where the great ones run away.

Thomas Boswell insists that time begins on Opening Day. Time seems to stop during the playoffs if one’s team is not participating. For me, it looks like some of the beats are on hiatus as well, and good articles are as scarce as hens’ teeth.

This by way of mea culpa. For now, we have Bob Shaw’s slow glass and a couple of weeks of irrelevance.

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• Matthew Trueblood (North Side Baseball*): The lesson of this October for left-out Cubs: Better build a deep, varied bullpen. “… the next-level challenge is to build a bullpen that contains several reliable hurlers with versatile skill sets.”
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib*): 6 Cubs who failed to live up to expectations in 2024. “Fans expected more from these Cubs players as the team missed the postseason yet again.”
• MLB.com*: Cubs No. 4 prospect Moises Ballesteros’ three hits. [VIDEO]
• Fred Mitchell*: Hall of Fame pitcher has a new heart, new outlook. “… Smith, 66, credits his wife, Dyana Penigar, for her persistence in finding the right medical professionals to spot the problem.”
• Adam Harrington, Rebecca McCann (CBS News*): Colorado gold mine tour guide who died in accident was once “Billy Cub” mascot outside Wrigley Field. “A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family.”

Food for Thought:

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