Rizzo Leads, MeToo in Sports, Javy’s Bubble, and Other Bullets

Dec 23, 2017

More day-trippin’ to visit family for the holidays. It is obscene how much preparation goes into traveling for just a half-day with a 1, 4, and 6-year-old. I do some of it, but mostly it’s: Thanks, The Wife!

Bonus: we’re currently on the Branch Rickey highway.

Apropos of very little, I did a Twitter poll this week on who you’d label the “face” of the Cubs right now, and the results were nice:

"Face" of the Cubs:

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) December 21, 2017

Rizzo is not only an excellent player, worthy of mention with Kris Bryant (and a couple others) as the most important on the team, but he’s also now the longest-tenured Cub at the big league level. The new front office arrived, and they wanted him to be the foundation upon which the rebuild was constructed. He arrived, he succeeded, he struggled, he adjusted, he grew up, he became involved in the community, and he lead. Not only is Rizzo the face of the Cubs, the organization is quite fortunate that he is.

There’s a nice Cubs.com piece on the Cubs’ de facto leader here, including this comment from Jon Lester: “I think sometimes people overlook consistency. They overlook people who go out and do their job every single day, who don’t do anything flashy. [Rizzo’s] face is around, but he’s not a ‘Look at me’ guy. He’s just an average dude who goes out and plays every single day, and I think that gets overlooked at times.” Rizzo, despite playing like a superstar, is a guy fans can look at and see a version of themselves.

It isn’t surprising, but it is a little disappointing: MLB reportedly complained to ESPN after the fierce Dan Le Batard interview of Commissioner Manfred. Le Batard was aggressive and pointed in his questions, but he was not, in my opinion, unfair. Marlins fans deserve to hear MLB’s official position on just how much they knew about what the new Marlins owners could afford and what they planned to do.

If you’re into video production and want to work for the Cubs, you’re in luck:

Cubs Productions is growing! Check out our openings (more to come next week) and please share with anyone interested:

Producer: https://t.co/39KT1ALjld
Videographer: https://t.co/BoonoKbazV
Editor: https://t.co/5DMWlzWiQr

— Matt Romito (@meatromito) December 22, 2017

An excellent and important read at The Athletic, as #MeToo continues to reach into the sports world, where we know there is a troubling history (and, in reality, present). Women in sports – as elsewhere – have been effective forced to stay silent for so long, but are finally finding the collective voice to be able to speak up. We should listen, we should believe them, and we should talk about how we get a little better every day.

The Yankees, Rangers, and Twins, each of whom had a whole lot of IFA pool money left after not getting to spend it on Shohei Ohtani, are spending it as best they can on some last minute prospects (remember, most of the best prospects sign shortly after the period opens on July 2). I wonder, behind the scenes, how the teams kept some of these prospects at bay while the Ohtani process played out. Must’ve been really unique.

Man he was so special:

Greg Maddux, Movement (76 pitch Complete Game). pic.twitter.com/53h3Ii7Wuz

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) December 21, 2017

And he was a beast on this shot:

THIS is what it means when people say "He got all of that one!"https://t.co/TRYDB81iQs

— Baseball is Fun (@flippingbats) December 23, 2017

It made me happy that this popped into my head yesterday:

You may say I’m a dreamer – but I’m not the only one:

With an Underrated Defense, a Franchise RB, and a Developing QB, the Bears Are Most Likely to Go Worst-to-First https://t.co/C0j7vA91ga pic.twitter.com/3rIlIBXBEv
— The Ten-Yard Line (@TheTenYardLine) December 22, 2017

Over at Amazon, your deals of the day include air diffusers, a fancy tumbler, and NFL/NCAA gear.

written by

Brett Taylor

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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