Maddon's newest message: Roll with the punches
If you can't fight it, you might as well roll with it.
That seems to be the message of the latest T-shirt rolled out by Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon on Friday.
The shirt reads "Embrace the Suck."
What does it mean?
"Exactly what it says," Maddon replied. "This happened in spring training. We've been waiting on it. Josh Lifrak, our mental skills coach in the minor leagues, brought it to my attention. And I said that's absolutely perfect. It includes "embrace the target" and "try not to suck."
"It's a military phrase for probably the last 20 years. I had never heard about it before. It's a morphing of those phrases, and we've been working with the military in order to be able to utilize it where we can sell it, use it for our team phrase, sell it through korkedbaseball.com and split some of the proceeds with Respect 90 (Maddon's charitable foundation) and also the military."
The Cubs have not gotten off to the start they had wanted, so Maddon wants his players to embrace that and roll with it.
"The message could not be more appropriate than it is right now, regarding the start of the season," he said. "We're embracing the suck. We're trying to continue to move forward. Militarily speaking, you can understand, I would imagine, if you're fighting in a difficult situation, it's never any good. But nevertheless you have to embrace the moment somehow."
The Cubs got off to a 25-6 start last year on the way to a world championship. They haven't been able to quite get over the hump this season.
"The point is, it's never going to be the same path," Maddon said. "To this point, it's not run exactly the way we've liked it to. To really expect utopia on an annual basis in the baseball industry is difficult and really not a good method. Now I want our guys to understand maybe we haven't done our best work to this point, but that's a good thing, to really stay focused and understand the better days are coming.
Heyward ready to roll:
Right fielder Jason Heyward returned to the big club Friday after going 1-for-3 in a rehab game Thursday at Class A South Bend.
Heyward expects to come off the disabled list Saturday. He he went on the DL May 8 with a sprained index finger, an injury he suffered diving for a flyball against the Yankees on May 5.
"It feels good," he said. "Just some minor soreness, which is good. It's a point where we can control it and not go in a bad direction as far as making anything worse.
"It was good on all levels. It felt better than I thought it would feel."
Heyward also said he enjoyed the day in South Bend, home of a lively ballpark and a good atmosphere.
"That was cool," he said. "It's always humbling to go back, to just kind of relive that moment and process. They've got a good group of guys down there. People are always great - staff, trainers, clubbies (clubhouse attendants), coaches, fans. That's cool, to be that close again and get that feel. Remember the path you took to get here and just kind of cross paths with some guys and hearing their stories, where they're from, things like that."