Today is The Littlest Girl’s first day of school (daycare). Although that means a whole lot more flexibility for me in my work day, it’s also obviously a little sad. That chunky, beautiful little face has been available for a pick-me-up at almost all times over the past four months. I miss her.
Trying to get everyone out the door this morning was a humorous re-creation of the frenetic leaving-for-Paris scene in ‘Home Alone,’ though, as kids are running all around and screaming, The Wife and I (who took the kids to school together today) try to make sure we have everything loaded up that we need, etc. There are only three kids, and one of them can’t move, so we weren’t at risk for actually forgetting one of them.
But you do have to keep your head on a swivel the whole time.
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Biggest rivalries in sports. What do you think of immediately? Michigan-Ohio State? Duke-UNC? Alabama-Auburn? Patriots-Roger Goodell? My guess is, if you’re a baseball fan, you also immediately think of the Yankees and Red Sox. In fairness, that’s pretty clearly the most significant and long-standing rivalry in baseball history – and I say that as someone who passionately enjoys the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry that is right up there. The question posed at MLB.com, however, is what baseball rivalries are the best ones for 2017. Given the Yankees’ seeming rebuild and the Red Sox’s dominant roster, that one might not be too compelling this year, not unlike the Cubs-Cardinals clashes of most of the past 15 years. By contrast, this year’s Cubs-Cardinals edition figures to be at least as heated as the last two years, when the Cubs mostly got the best of the Cardinals, and they rightly didn’t much care for it.
… but Cubs-Cardinals does not make the top of Anthony Castrovince’s list, primarily because of just how far ahead the Cubs seem to be right now. Instead, the historic midwest rivalry places fourth. At the top of the list: Dodgers-Giants. That seems fair, doesn’t it? Not only do those teams also have a long-standing, dramatic, and often extremely antagonistic rivalry, but they also figure to be fighting it out at the top of the NL West once again this year.
You know the story by now, and you also have had it beat over your head how unbelievable it was … and yet I still really enjoyed reading Sahadev Sharma’s thoughtful look back at Kyle Schwarber in the World Series:
Kyle Schwarber played in a handful of games in 2016, but as Jed Hoyer said, “What he did is the stuff of legend." https://t.co/7oW4MQx3HP
How much pressure is each MLB team under in 2017? Mike Axisa writes it up at CBS, and the Cubs come in at “moderate.” That might surprise you after a long-awaited World Series victory, but I actually agree – although the Cubs’ positional core should give them a nice long window of contention, their best window pretty clearly runs through this season, before Jake Arrieta, John Lackey, and Wade Davis hit free agency.
Arg, that would suck: Japanese star pitcher/hitter Shohei Otani will reportedly not play in the World Baseball Classic thanks to an ankle injury.
The Cubs and Mesa will have a World Series rally in Arizona on February 24:
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.
Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
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NEWSLETTER
Today is The Littlest Girl’s first day of school (daycare). Although that means a whole lot more flexibility for me in my work day, it’s also obviously a little sad. That chunky, beautiful little face has been available for a pick-me-up at almost all times over the past four months. I miss her.
