Before Cubs' rout, Epstein tries to put 'urgency' narrative to bed

Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein said Monday the "sense of urgency" ship has sailed and it's a way out to sea, as far as the team is concerned.

"I think this entire 'sense of urgency' narrative or subject line has taken on a life of its own completely outside the clubhouse," Epstein said Monday before the Cubs' home opener at Wrigley Field. The Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-0. "This was a movement by our players and staff, everyone together, assessing ways we could perform a little bit better this year and learn some lessons from the way last year ended."

Epstein himself started the "urgency" narrative with his angry postseason news conference last October after the Cubs were bounced out of the wild-card game by the Colorado Rockies. If it has taken on a life of its own, it's because the Cubs got off to a 2-7 start on their season-opening road trip.

"It was a message that was really organic as a reaction to the way last season ended, some take-aways from what we could have done better last season and something that was universally felt by the players and staff and management last year," Epstein said. "I don't think 'focus' is a bad thing. I think it's a good thing. I don't think 'intensity' is a bad thing. It's a good thing.

"When you get off to a bad start, everything around the club looks like it's wrong. I think our guys are showing up ready to win every game. We just haven't done it."

Laid-back manager Joe Maddon explained his feelings on "urgency."

"I just want the sense of today," he said. "I don't need the word 'urgency.' I want us to get better one week at a time. That's all I want. I think you know semantics or you've got to be careful with semantics because you don't know everybody's going to interpret them. I want them to really process today, period."

Press-box faux pas:

The Cubs have renovated everything at Wrigley Field but the press box, but they tried some decorating that they changed in a hurry.

Greeting the media and Cubs staff as they entered the stairway to the press box were press-box signs from years past. One, from 1945, featured the line "No women admitted."

When photos of the sign were tweeted, the Cubs removed the sign before the game began and replaced it with a photo of Wrigley Field.

This and that:

Ben Zobrist went 1-for-2 and has reached base safely in his first nine games … Kyle Schwarber hit a 2-run, opposite-field homer to left-center in the fourth inning against Pirates lefty Steven Brault. It was Schwarber's third homer of the season and his seventh career homer off a lefty … The Cubs won their largest shutout victory in a home opener in franchise history and scored double digits in a home opener for the first time since 1984.