MESA, Ariz. — On the first day of the rest of the post-drought era, Cubs manager Joe Maddon wondered aloud if there was a statute of limitations on bringing mimes into the clubhouse.
“Can you do a mime two years in a row?” Maddon said during his first news conference in Mesa. “I don’t know if that’s permissible. Under MLB rules somewhere, I don’t think you can bring a mime back.”
New season, new Cubs, same old Joe.
The boys were back in town, at least the pitchers and catchers, and Maddon’s wild rumpus was starting anew.
The world champions opened camp Tuesday under sunny skies in Arizona with great expectations and most of the same cast of characters who changed the way people think about an organization synonymous with failure.
Lovable losers no more, the 2017 Cubs are suddenly the gold standard for success in baseball, believe it or not. They have created the perfect recipe for building a winner from scratch, starting with shrewd drafting and deft deal-making, adding in a few quality free-agent signings and a couple of character guys, and bringing in a cerebral manager who keeps pressure off everyone in the dugout while satiating fans and media alike.
President Theo Epstein may have been the architect of the Cubs’ championship season, but Maddon served as the celebrity chef, constantly stirring the pot from the wacky spring training routines through the epic Game 7 of the World Series in Cleveland.
So what’s new for the Cubs in 2017?
Will Maddon stay the course or look for new methods to get to the promised land?
“Nothing has changed, man,” Maddon said, flanked by Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer at the opening press briefing. “I mean, it’s all the same in regards to the methods, the process. … I just got aired out upstairs by one of our sports geek guys for not using the word ‘process.’ It’s true.”
Rest assured Maddon will continue to preach about the “process,” though whether he will repeat his vaunted “Cheech &Chong” skit — donning a tie-dye T-shirt and driving out onto the practice field in what former President Barack Obama referred to as Maddon’s “shaggin’ wagon” — remains to be seen.
“Our process shall remain the same, absolutely it shall,” Maddon said. “Hopefully, we’re going to add or augment it in some ways that can be even more interesting, entertaining. I don’t know.”
Last year’s theme heading into spring training was “Embrace the Target,” a nod to the consensus view that the 2016 Cubs were favorites to win the World Series.
Mission accomplished.
This year’s buzzwords include “uncomfortable,” “authentic” and the new saying, “That’s Cub,” a reference to the organization’s insistence on playing the game the right way.
Many of the same experts who called the Cubs’ 2016 title, including the oddsmakers in Las Vegas, are predicting a repeat, similar to the one the Cubs pulled off in 1907 and 1908 before the century of regress turned them into punchlines.
Unequivocally, it’s World Series or bust now, with three of the game’s top starters in Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks, the reigning National League and World Series Most Valuable Player in Kris Bryant, a slew of All-Stars including Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist, and emerging stars in Kyle Schwarber, Javier Baez and Willson Contreras.
Confidence in the Cubs is as overwhelming as the sweet smell emanating from a chocolate shop, and it’s becoming an epidemic everywhere but on the South Side.
It’s a heady feeling for the generations of Cubs fans who grew up expecting things to go wrong at the most inopportune time, a belief based on actual events that need not be mentioned here, or in polite company, ever again.
If the Cubs keep dominating, sooner or later their fans may even stop mentioning Maddon’s maneuvering in Game 7, which led to the gut-punching, game-tying home run off Aroldis Chapman that reminded us again of what it felt like in 1969, 1984 and 2003.
Maddon took numerous shots as his overuse of Chapman was brought up again and again, even though the end result made the move irrelevant.
“I know, and it’s coming up again right now,” Maddon said Tuesday, prompting laughs from the jammed media room at the Cubs’ facility.
Uh, sorry Joe.
But does Maddon think the Game 7 criticism ever will go away?
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Stuff like that doesn’t bother me at all. I’ve talked about it before. In that game, regardless of what people may have thought, like any other game that I worked all year long, I had it planned out like that before the game began. So it wasn’t anything I tried to do differently, game in progress.
“Had I not done what I thought I was supposed to do, then I would’ve second-guessed myself. So, no, I have no problem with that. I really don’t mind the second-guessing from anybody. I kind of encourage it.
“Please go ahead and do it because I’ll take that kind of second-guessing after winning a World Series on an annual basis, thank you very much.”
Of course, Chapman himself contributed to the saga when he threw Maddon under the bus after he re-signed with the Yankees, saying his former manager had “abused” him. Maddon said the two spoke about “stuff” at the White House ceremony, where Chapman gave him a warm hug.
“There might have been something lost in the translation,” Maddon said, trying to take Chapman off the hook.
No matter. Life goes on. Chapman is gone, the parade is over and the wall outside Wrigley Field has been power-blasted clean of the names of deceased Cubs fans written in colored chalk.
Spring training is time for everyone to sweep out the old and embrace the promise of a new season.
Last year was “the Year” Cubs fans have been waiting for their entire lives. It was just as fun as everyone dreamed it would be.
Now everyone is on bonus points, so just enjoy the ride.