Chicago Cubs keeping things loose as they prepare for playoffs
The Chicago Cubs looked like one tight bunch Tuesday as they began preparing for the postseason.
They were so tight that Dexter Fowler came up to bat in their simulated game wearing a Miami Dolphins football helmet.
They were so tight that Anthony Rizzo took a few warmup tosses on the pitcher's mound while wearing catcher David Ross' No. 3 uniform jersey. Ross wore Rizzo's No. 44.
You get the idea.
“We were trying to replicate the intensity of the postseason,” said team president Theo Epstein, with a laugh. “I'm not sure we accomplished that. It was fun out there, that's for sure. I sat out in the bullpen for a couple innings. That was a blast.”
The Cubs will open the National League division series Friday night against the winner of Wednesday night's wild-card game between the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets.
With four full days off before playing a real game, the Cubs took to Wrigley Field for a simulated game Tuesday afternoon. They'll work out Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for Friday's NLDS opener.
About the only news to come out of Tuesday, and it wasn't really a surprise, was that left-hander Jon Lester and righty Kyle Hendricks will start the first two games, respectively, at Wrigley, with Jake Arrieta going in Game 3 on the road followed by John Lackey, if a fourth game is necessary.
Aside from that, it was all business as usual — or unusual — for the Cubs, who are trying to make the most of the down time.
As he has done since the Cubs clinched the division in mid-September, manager Joe Maddon again said he has not changed his approach. He spent part of the simulated game as the “bullpen coach” before walking through the stands where reporters were sitting to join Epstein and the rest of brain trust in the box seats behind home plate.
“Today was really talking to the players about the season,” Maddon said. “I have three meetings during the course of a year: one before spring training, one at the all-star break and one before the first playoff game.
“I wanted to recount the entire year, how I thought we went through it, how we checked the different boxes that we had set forth in spring training and the fact that I really don't want us to change at all going into this postseason.
“That is always the threat, that you believe that you have to do more, add more things, all those kind of add-ons that absolutely get in the way. The one point I didn't actually make in there (the clubhouse) but I've said to you guys in the past is if you take care of the seconds, the minutes, the hours, the days take care of themselves.
“The more we can stay involved in the present tense, the better off we're going to be.”
Maddon also has pointed out that even though the Cubs are young, many of the players took part in last year's run to the National League championship series, which ended with a sweep at the hands of the Mets.
The Cubs were the surprise team of the season in 2015, winning 97 games and the wild card. So there was a feel-good aspect to it. This season the feeling is different, as Maddon's boss noted.
“There's a real difference between a team's first time in, not a franchise's first time in, but a group of guys, their first time in the postseason,” Epstein said. “It's all new and exciting. There aren't many expectations on them. It's hard to win. It's hard to win that first time in. It's hard to go deep that first time in. I think it's really helpful to get that experience.
“The next time in, there are fewer unknowns, even little things like tickets and the extra long inning breaks and the different stuff with the media. It's a little more businesslike the second time in with all of our guys.”