Spring Training Miscellany: Guess Who, Birthdays, Visitors, The Who, Batting Practice, More!

If you’ve been following along lately, you’ll know that at the end of every day, we’ve been gathering and discussing some miscellaneous fun out of the Cubs’ Spring camp.

And of all the things we’ve seen so far, this video is my favorite of the year:

  • I shed a few extra tears of laughter when Jason Heyward jokes that he “was afraid” to say John Lackey’s name for “BLANK looks like a guy who is being told that his luggage was sent to another state.”
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  • Just like Chicago (shh … no one tell the city it’s still February), it was a beautiful day in Mesa:
  • I want to go to there.
  • Also, it was one of the new guys’ birthdays:
  • Happy birthday, Brian! Strike out some lefties, eh?
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  • And if you happen to be in Mesa this week …
  • According to Carrie Muskat on Twitter, nine patients from Advocates Children’s Hospital in Chicago were special guests at Cubs camp today:
  • She has a bunch of other shots of the players and kids hanging around the practice fields on her Twitter page. By the look of things, a good time was had all around:
  • I’m continually proud to be a fan of this particular Cubs team. #ThatsCub
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  • According to Jesse Rogers, coach Brandon Hyde was conveying the importance of base running today, just before having the Cubs run some drills:
  • The following photo of warm-ups got Brett daydreaming:
  • Yeah, this is just great. Ben Zobrist is the man:
  • Jesse Rogers has some video of Cubs infielders working on accuracy, by trying to hit a bucket with throws to the plate.
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  • And you can also catch some pop-up drills right here:
  • Jake Arrieta doesn’t have a patent on #strength:
  • And we’ll have fun, fun, fun:
  • These three are going to do some DAMAGE next season:
  • Sharma also got a short video of Brett Anderson throwing some live BP:
  • In a later tweet, he revealed that Anderson was pitching to Willson Contreras, who figures to be the primary catcher in 2017.
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  • I’m sure you’ll want to watch Kyle Hendricks tossing some batting practice with Ben Zobrist at the plate.
  • This’ll continue to be something to follow closely, but so far so good with Anderson:
  • These guys are good dudes …
  • But this guy might be the best dude:
  • Some informative updates for on and off the field:
  • On Twitter, John Arguello (Cubs Den) mentioned that he spoke with Dylan Cease and noted that he’s in great shape. 2017 is shaping up to be a very big year for Cease, so I’m glad to hear he’s doing well.
  • And finally,
  • written by

    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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