Taking Breaks In-Season, Happ with a Willy Walk-Off, El Mago Runs, and Other Cubs Bullets

The Wife and I finally managed to watch the ‘Parks and Rec’ special, and holy crap. Could they have executed that more perfectly? It was extremely entertaining, gave us the fan service, and ALSO touched on some really serious, kind issues in helpful ways. To pull that off so quickly, without a production in place, all remote … unbelievable. If you were ever a ‘Parks and Rec’ fan, make sure you watch it. (Something something it’s available on Hulu which you can get as part of the bundle here and support BN something something.)

•   Interesting anecdote from Joe Maddon via NBC, as the former Cubs manager says Theo Epstein offered that Maddon could take a couple day break in the middle of a season if needed (a la the Dennis Rodman Las Vegas break covered in ‘The Last Dance’ documentary). Maddon never took it, but it makes you wonder how often that might happen around sports – a manager or a coach is out for a couple days with an unspecified illness or attending to a personal matter or whatever, and actually he’s just getting a mental break. Might not be the worst idea in the world (for players, too). It’s not hard to imagine that whatever you lose by not having a manager there for a couple days is gained back and then some by his mind and spirit and energy being refreshed.

•   Maddon, himself, is known for getting his players two days off in a row wherever possible. Kinda hope that’s one of the things David Ross carries forward into his tenure, and then maybe also gives himself and his coaches a periodic break.

•   Ian Happ pulled off a thrilling win in the MLB The Show playoffs last night, with the help of Willson Contreras:

•   But ultimately Happ fell to Lucas Giolito in the semi-finals:

•   One of my favorite El Mago baserunning moments, of which there are many:

•   Pretty awesome – one of the parents of the kiddos who got to video chat with Kris Bryant shared his connection:

•   Loud:

•   Albert Pujols has grounded into 395 double plays in his career, the most in baseball history. That’s all. I just noticed.

•   Amazon best sellers and deals for the kitchen, to the extent you are doing more cooking/baking than ever like we are. #ad

•   A fun read about something crazy Doc Ellis did. No, not that thing, the other thing:

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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