Statue Row is nice, but when will Cubs commemorate 2016 title?
When the Cubs revealed the new "statue row" on Gallagher Way, it included some mystery.
Flanking the four current statues are two empty pedestals on either side.
What's going up in those spots? Who should they honor and when?
First of all, there's no hurry to do anything. The spotlight can deservedly stay with Ferguson Jenkins for a few years after his statue was unveiled last month.
The easiest move would be to make Ryne Sandberg the next statue. He's a Hall of Famer, MVP winner and spent all but 13 games of his major league career with the Cubs.
As far as an individual player, Sandberg is the obvious choice. The Cubs have shown no inclination to celebrate the steroid era with Sammy Sosa.
Andre Dawson is another Hall of Famer and MVP who is popular with fans, but he spent just six of his 21 seasons in Chicago. There's probably not much interest in going pre-1969 for someone like Stan Hack or Gabby Hartnett.
Then again, there's sort of an awkwardness to statue row. Jenkins, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ron Santo are legends, but they never played in a single postseason game for the Cubs.
So what do the Cubs do to commemorate 2016? There's an MVP (Kris Bryant) and Cy Young winner (Jake Arrieta) in that group, but no obvious Hall of Famers at the moment. And thanks to last year's decision to clear the deck and begin a rebuild, it's possible no one from that group will make it through 10 years with the Cubs.
Anthony Rizzo lasted 9½ years before being traded. Kyle Hendricks is in his ninth season and still here, so I asked what he thinks the Cubs could do.
"We're getting further and further away from it, so that's a natural discussion to have," Hendrick said. "I'm sure something will happen when all the guys get back together at some point. We're coming up on six years. I don't know, a 10-year thing? I don't know how it all works, to be honest with you."
The White Sox waited three years before placing a monument outside Guaranteed Rate Field to honor the 2005 World Series champs. It's a large, two-sided piece of art that mixes embedded photos of the greatest plays from that season with partial sculptures of four players (Paul Konerko, Joe Crede, Juan Uribe and Orlando Hernandez).
A structure the size of the White Sox memorial wouldn't fit on the Cubs' statue row. But they've got to do their own thing, and they could put it elsewhere.
"It would definitely be cool to see something out there and I'm sure they have good ideas," Hendricks said. "Everything they changed and every idea they've come up with, this place ends up better and better for the fans. I can see them doing something really cool probably from the fans' perspective."
Re-creating the on-field celebration would be nice, except the infield featured Rizzo, Bryant, Javy Baez and Addison Russell. There's no chance Russell ends up on a statue with his history of domestic violence accusations.
The game-ending battery was Mike Montgomery and Miguel Montero. Both are appreciated, but weren't Cubs for very long.
Maybe they should re-create the go-ahead RBI, with Ben Zobrist jumping for joy at second base and Rizzo standing on third with hands on helmet. But it's tough, because there were so many contributors on that squad, adding Willson Contreras, Dexter Fowler, David Ross and Jon Lester to the names already mentioned.
"With where the team's at right now, there's so much focus on where we're trying to get to and where we're going, so maybe a little bit down the road, depending on where we're at with this team," Hendricks said. "Maybe that has something to do with those decisions."
That's an astute observation. Realistically, Contreras could be on statue trajectory. He's a lock to make his third all-star appearance and could spend four more years as the best catcher in MLB, in theory. But there's also a good chance he follows Bryant, Rizzo and Baez out the door before the trade deadline.
The Cubs will face Rizzo for the first time since he was traded this weekend at Yankee Stadium. Rizzo has played one game against the Cubs in his career. It was the final game of the 2011 regular season in San Diego, and also the last game Rizzo played with the Padres.
He was traded to the Cubs a few months later for Andrew Cashner, a pitcher who struck Rizzo out that day.
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