Every opening day brings a reminder of one thing from the previous, and the previous is prologue on the subject of the Chicago Cubs.
The yin and yang of Cubs baseball was in proof once more Thursday on the season opener at Wrigley Field, the place the Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-0 within the first sport of the pitch-clock period.
Winning pitcher Marcus Stroman made historical past within the third inning with MLB’s first pitch–clock violation, new shortstop Dansby Swanson completed with three hits and drove within the season’s first run and the Cubs performed stellar protection on a chilly and sunny afternoon.
It was their 8,368th sport at Wrigley since April 20, 1916, when the Cubs moved into the ballpark on the nook of Clark and Addison streets, a day the Chicago Tribune known as “another epochal day in the history of baseball.”
Wrigley has modified fairly a bit since that 7-6, 11-inning win in opposition to the Cincinnati Reds. Even the outdated center-field scoreboard wasn’t round again then. But Cubs followers have stayed just about the identical. A packed home of round 20,000 hung round till the top of that inaugural sport 107 years in the past, regardless that it lasted previous 6 p.m.
“There might have been some wishing to leave after the seventh inning had been played,” the Tribune reported. “But the joy and excitement of the last four rounds made them forget home and dinner and dignity.”
Some issues by no means change.
Most of the 36,054 in attendance Thursday stayed for the end of the opener, which lasted 2 hours, 21 minutes. They sang that Steve Goodman tune earlier than departing and have been dwelling in supper time.
The new pitch-clock guidelines former Cubs President Theo Epstein helped MLB institute might result in extra followers watching all 9 innings once more.
“Unless it’s a bad game one way or another, I feel we’re pretty fortunate that way,” now-President Jed Hoyer stated of Cubs followers. “Around the league you may see that more and more. I thought it was awesome all spring. Theo called me after one game and said ‘1:57, oh, God.’ He was so excited.”
Eric Karros as soon as stated “every player should be a Cub for one year,” and Hoyer, together with his roster shuffling the final two seasons, seems destined to make {that a} actuality. The Cubs added a number of gamers this offseason, and solely Ian Happ, Patrick Wisdom and Nico Hoerner have been holdovers from final yr’s opening-day lineup.
Before the sport, Hoyer inadvertently conjured recollections of the late Ron Santo when he leaned ahead from his seat within the dugout to keep away from having his completely coifed hair singed by an overhead heating lamp.
It was 20 years in the past on the 2003 opener in opposition to the New York Mets at Shea Stadium that Santo stood within the radio sales space for the nationwide anthem and had his hairpiece burned by an overhead heater. Cubs broadcaster Pat Hughes and producer Matt Boltz taped a photograph of Santo on the heater to mark the event, and the pale photograph was nonetheless there for the bitter finish of the ballpark in 2007. Santo’s standing invitation to push the button to implode Shea Stadium, nevertheless, had been rejected.
Hughes threw out the ceremonial first pitch Thursday and has been busy writing his speech for this summer season’s special occasion in Cooperstown, N.Y., the place he’ll obtain the Ford Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting. The Cubs additionally paid tribute on the video board to heroes of the group’s previous who died since final season, together with Bruce Sutter and Joe Pepitone.
Also honored have been former Sun-Times baseball author Joe Goddard and WXRT-FM character Lin Brehmer. You don’t should be a ballplayer to name Wrigley Field dwelling.
Hoerner, who agreed to a three-year, $35 million extension Wednesday, helped bail Stroman out of a third-inning jam by beginning an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded and completed 1-for-4.
Hoerner understands what Cubs historical past is all about, having spent a minute or two beneath former supervisor Joe Maddon on the finish of 2019. Hoerner revealed he pays tribute to former Cub Anthony Rizzo, whose locker he inherited after Rizzo was traded to the New York Yankees within the 2021 sell-off.
“I have a pair of his little batting gloves with his dachshunds on it,” Hoerner stated. “Just a little reminder of what was there before. Stuff like that, it does matter and it changes fast. It’s not something to forget.”
Hoerner stated “one of the most satisfying things” he might do can be to go from a rebuild to a championship with the identical group, simply as Rizzo did.
“Seeing Rizz at the end of that and knowing he’d been through the entire story of it was as inspirational as it gets, honestly,” he stated.
You search for inspiration wherever you’ll find it, and this Cubs group shall be trying to replicate the magic that Rizzo & firm created a couple of lengthy years in the past, when it regarded as if the run would final into the 2020s.
It didn’t prove that manner, but when they’ll succeed now, followers simply may have the ability to overlook dwelling and dinner and dignity as soon as once more.
History has a manner of repeating itself on the nook of Clark and Addison.
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com