Cubs manager David Ross walks back to the dugout after having a conversation with an umpire in the second inning against the Marlins on Thursday at Wrigley Field. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune, Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
Wandering through the start of the baseball season while pulling over to the side of the road for a brief rest on a lazy Sunday morning in early May.
Here’s what we’ve learned so far.
Shades of 1997
The 1997 Cubs lost their first 14 games, setting a National League record and effectively ending their season before it ever got off the ground.
The White Sox’s 7-21 start was similar, though manager Pedro Grifol insisted after the 10-game losing streak hope remained despite being 14 games under .500 on April 30.
“It doesn’t feel like that,” Grifol said. “I can’t explain that feeling. I wake up every morning, and my feeling is today is going to be the start of something good. That’s how we prepare, that’s how we work, that’s how we address things. That’s what we do. …. I don’t feel this is over by any means.”
The Sox scored seventh ninth-inning runs the next day in a comeback win over the Tampa Bay Rays and won two of three against the division-leading Minnesota Twins to stay within eight games.
After Saturday’s 5-3 loss to the Reds in Cincinnati, they were 11-23 and eight games back.
Brian McRae, the starting center fielder on the 1997 Cubs, knows the feeling. He said the goal after falling 14 games under was to just get close to .500 and see what might happen.
“We played the Braves and Marlins back-to-back to start the season, and all those great starters like (Greg) Maddux, (John) Smoltz, (Tom) Glavine, Kevin Brown and Alex Fernandez,” he said. “Before we had a chance to catch our breath, we’d already had double doses of the Marlins and Braves — facing Cy Young candidates for two weeks straight.
“We never recovered, but we almost got it back to .500, maybe six games within .500. But we spent so much energy just trying to get back to .500 and make it somewhat respectable.”
Likewise, the Sox played seven of their first 28 games against the Rays, the best team in the majors this season. They went 1-6.
McRae said he has watched the Sox and know they have enough talent to get back into the race.
“Their division is bad,” he said. “But it’s going to be tough. We were not good, but we played hard and we didn’t have instances of guys not running out balls (like Luis Robert) and all the lapses in judgment. We just got beat.
“They have talent, but they just don’t look like they care. Something is going on there that’s festered. It looks like they don’t even like being around each other.”
‘Players helping players’
White Sox closer Liam Hendriks publicly thanked Cubs pitcher and fellow cancer survivor Jameson Taillon upon his return last week for some words of inspiration during his battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The two didn’t know each other, but Taillon reached out to share some advice he had received from former Colorado Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis, who had survived testicular cancer.
“There’s not that many baseball players that have been affected by cancer,” Taillon told the Tribune. “I feel like it’s a pretty small number. Then obviously (we’re) two baseball players playing in the same city that have been affected by it. I just felt called to reach out to him and make sure he was doing all right.”
Bettis told Taillon to follow his own path, which Taillon passed on to Hendriks.
“There are a lot of people in the world that know what you’re going through (with) cancer, but not professionally and with what you’re battling personally off the field,” Taillon said. “Chad Bettis told me: ‘Bro, if you think you want to keep throwing when you’re getting treatment, go for it. If you want to shut it down and completely get away from baseball, it’s your journey. Do whatever you need to do. No one really knows what you’re going through. No one can tell you what to do. …
“That felt really powerful to me when I was going through it. So I felt like I needed to pass it along.”
Taillon said being on the mound can be a “safe space,” and pitching could be a much-needed distraction. He plans to talk with Hendriks during the City Series.
“Players helping players,” he said.
David Ross gets an A-plus from his boss
Ross’ managing already has been a recurring theme of the Cubs season, as indicated by the reaction during the recent 1-6 trip.
“Is everybody mad at me?” he facetiously asked.
Well, a few.
Ross said he’s fine with taking the blame from fans for the downturn and hopes players get all the credit when they’re winning.
What else is a manager going to say: “Blame them, not me”?
Cubs President Jed Hoyer, naturally, had no idea his manager was taking some flack or whether any of it was deserved.
“I don’t read any of it, so I don’t know,” said Hoyer, a prolific reader. “I have my own opinions about everything. We talk every day. He’s A-plus in the clubhouse every day. We talk about all the decisions.”
Hoyer changed the subject, saying the Cubs “obviously have to do better” in one-run games and noting the hitters “were at a level offensively that was bound to come down a little bit.”
Clark the Cub channels his inner Owsley
The Cubs have scheduled a May 23 giveaway to commemorate the farewell concerts of Dead & Company, which features the surviving members of the Grateful Dead. Fans will be able to pick a different colored bobblehead of Clark the Cub, who is positioned like the dancing bear logo made famous by the Grateful Dead.
The logo was a nod to Owsley “Bear” Stanley, the original Grateful Dead sound man who was renowned for manufacturing LSD. From Owsley to Clark the Cub? It has been a long, strange trip, indeed.
Stat of the day
Major-league relievers had a combined 24% strikeout rate on Saturday, a tick above last year’s 23.6% rate. In 1997, relievers struck out hitters at an 18.5% rate, setting a record. That season now ranks 21st all time, and the league average has been over 22% every season since 2014.
Sunday morning flashback
It was May 2006 when the Cubs decided to stop playing Van Halen’s “Jump” before the start of every game, as had been done most days since it became the opening theme on WGN-Ch. 9 telecasts in 1984. The exception to the rule was on the day of the first scheduled night game in 1988, when the Cubs played Frank Sinatra’s “Night and Day.”
Instead of using “Jump” daily in ‘06, the Cubs marketing department decided to go with a rotation that included songs from Cold Play and U2. Eventually the opening songs were tailored to the day’s starting Cubs pitcher, which is why you’ve never heard of so many of the songs used to start games at Wrigley Field.
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Originally published at Tribune News Service