Cubby-Blue

Woulda been Opening Day for the Cubs in Milwaukee.

Well... damn this virus. 
Just a couple weeks ago, today was still our anticipated day of 2020.
I mean, nothin' to do for it but stay home and not contribute to the spread of this thing, but...
Come ON man, you would have figured out a way to sneak into a conference room with a tv, or just watched on your phone at your desk.
I did this painting a couple months ago.
It's a full sheet - 30 x 22" and took longer than a week - you lay down some paint and wait for it to dry and lay on some more... and pretty soon it's a painting. 
Even though it depicts Wrigley, this was the painting I wanted to show you today... I guessed it might be Hendricks pitching but now I'm sure it would have been Yu Darvish. 
Anyway, since baseball didn't happen, I'll show you the steps of the painting...

First I masked out the lights so they'd stay white and I could do a big wash for the sky with a giant brush.


The first wash, still wet.

Lay in the base of color on the white uni.

More color.

This is a tighter shot of the finish. For the crowd I used a small dowel and acrylic paint to "print" the crowd in. That was WAY too bright and I had a heart attack, but then I put down a last dark wash over the crowd.

So... just SO hoping that baseball will be played (even without a crowd) at some point this summer.
What I do is expect the worst so that if it doesn't go all bad, then it's SO MUCH MORE AWESOME!
And if it goes bad, well... then it does and that's what I expected.
I think I told you my waiter story from way back when.
You're slammed.
The whole station filled in minutes and you're hustling but obviously some people will be waiting longer than others.
So when you take the orders at those tables, you tell them that the kitchen is a little behind and dinner may be as much as a 45 minute wait.
Even though you know it won't take that long, but definitely longer than they're expecting.
The customers aren't happy, but at least they know the score.
And then, when you bring out their dinners in 20 minutes, they're ecstatic. 
I promise you, that's WAY better than telling them their dinner will be up any minute over and over.
So like I said, hoping baseball will come.
The virus will let us know.

Go Cubs.

Nothing to do with the Cubs, but maybe some paintings to make you smile.

Man, there just ain't nothin' funny going on in the world.
So as usual I'm keeping a sketchbook, only instead of it being about the Cubs, it's about what's happening in the time of Covid-19.

Just some random stuff:
So remember I painted a girl wearing a "WASH YOUR HANDS" T-shirt that I wished someone would make? Obvious Shirts did, although probably not at my online suggestion, and they're SO COOL!
It says this on the page where you can order: "We’re raising funds to help take care of the workers who are going to be hurt by the loss of games at Wrigley Field. All proceeds from the sale of this shirt will be donated with the intention that they go to displaced hourly employees who make the Wrigley experience the best in the country!".
Well after that, we went to dinner and found out we weren't supposed to touch our faces.


We've got a cat, Roo, along with my daughter's cat Goblin (until she finds a rental that'll allow cats). 
And now that we never leave the house, the cats are pretty needy...

Here's the guy that I believe the word "Covidiot" was invented for:

I really did think that was Bieber at first, not that I'm a follower or "belieber" or whatever.

It was the first day of Spring a couple days ago. My wife planted these little flowers that are always the first things to sprout out front. I forget what they're called.


Then, there's breakfast. 
I am NOT whining.
We're really lucky, we have food... I'm just trying to have what fun I can.
Oatmeal. 
I hated this stuff as a kid, but we got some for this.. time period.




I've actually become a fan. 
If you just use water and not milk, then it doesn't turn into that thick goo with lumps.
It's just hot cereal and you can put anything on it. 

And coffee. 
Yes eating right is important, but just sayin'...



That's it for now.
Please be safe, stay inside, follow the rules and let's get through this thing.
We got to see the Cubs win one World Series.
Let's all hang around for the next, okay? 
Go Cubs.
And Go You!

Spring Training cancelled. Baseball put on hold. Sad but gotta be done.

This is all so surreal.
Yet, you knew this was going to happen sooner or later.
Baseball cancelled the rest of spring training and put off the start of the season for a couple weeks as a kind of buffer to see what's going to happen.

With this kind of thing, when it happens it happens and there's nothing we can do about it.
Like snapping your fingers.
One minute covid 19 was a problem in other places, then a teacher's assistant at a school 3 blocks from us contracted it.
One minute Kris Bryant is saying that we all need to take precautions and be safe, the next... baseball shut down.

Baseball does have a history of helping and healing the country, and I don't doubt that it'll do that again this year. 
It is, after all, the National Pastime.
Even with empty ballparks, if and when the games do actually get played, that would be huge.
But only if it's safe for everybody (not just players) in the games.

I'm gonna take care of stuff around here and probably won't put anything out for a little bit.
Be kind. Follow the news and do what they say. And wash your hands.

Grandpa. Grandpa Rossy. Rossy. Skipper. Cubs' David Ross is evolving.

During the really entertaining if not kinda famous Mic'd Up Game (Cubs vs Angels on ESPN), there was a dugout discussion regarding the aliases Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo use when they're checking into hotels to keep themselves anonymous, and they were prompted to ask Dave Ross if he had one.
Rizzo looks off camera and says, "Skipper! What was your alias back in the day?"
Ross answers "Jake Taylor" and everybody laughs as we learn that was the name of the backup catcher in "Major League".
But that wasn't the interesting part of that interaction.
The interesting part was how effortlessly and... normal I guess... that Rizzo called Ross "Skipper".
Every time I'd seen Ross since he became manager, I couldn't quite make the mental switch to giving him that title.
Rizzo set me straight.
Ross isn't the ex-player old guy mentor World Series Hero Dancing With The Stars Late Night Guest Author Guy any more.
He's the Manager of the Chicago Cubs.
And now he's got to get down to the business of making managerial decisions.
Here's what he's thinking...
Pitching staff - Darvish or Lester opening day nod? Mills or Chatwood 5th starter? That Guy, Whatshisname, or This Guy stays in the pen?
Outfield - Happ or Almora in center? Where does Souza play? Who is this fast guy stealing all the bases this spring, Ian Miller?
Infield - Is Hoerner a Big Leaguer yet, or is he better off in Triple A? Kipnis at 2nd? What about Bote and Descalso? 
Pulling pitchers - is my walk too slow?
Sunglasses - should I keep these weird huge super dark ones? 
"Skipper" or "Skip"?

SO MANY THINGS TO THINK ABOUT!
And will be answered fairly quickly since the 26th of March is right around the corner.
It'll be interesting to watch Ross figure things out, although he'll have plenty of help I'm sure.
And really, no super hard personnel decisions to be made yet.
Unless he says that Happ is The Centerfielder, then former team-mate Almora might be a tough conversation.
Jon Lester looks crafty enough to be in that opening day starter conversation (at the end of last year if you'd have said that I would have laughed), so nothing bad to say to his former battery mate.
I mean, they didn't hand him the keys to a Rolls, but Ross has a pretty dang nice set of wheels for his first car, you know?
The bullpen will be the bullpen, and the worst that could happen is if Kimbrel ran out of gas last year, THEN what?
Probably Kipnis is 2nd base and Hoerner goes down - I just think Kipnis will be okay and with the education of young Schwarbs and Happ... the Cubs probably don't want to do that up and down and up again thing with Nico.
Anyway, hard choices but not debilitating.

Go Cubs.

Can't ignore coronavirus and baseball.

Yesterday morning, because I was excited for his start, I did a quick portrait of Yu Darvish based on his ESPN portrait.




Hey it's just spring ball, where everything is both SUPER important and yet not.
Like Ian Happ's spring so far!
I'm blabbing about it to everybody because it's so encouraging - yesterday the Cubs had 3 total hits vs the Rangers and 2 of them were Happ's. He's slashing .500/.500/.889! 
But it's just Spring and yada yada small sample so really not that big a deal, right?
Conversely, Yu Darvish (and Jason Kipness) was scratched from his start because "illness", which ordinarily would be nothin'.
(Here's an update from Sullivan)
The flu or a bug or whatever goes through a clubhouse all the time (David Ross missed his first ST game for this reason).
It's just normal, no biggie.
But now we're all keenly aware of coronavirus (COVID-19), and any hint of someone having a cold will be way more anxiety-filled.
Happily, Bruce Levine says Darvish only has a cough.
But.. you can't help but think of what could happen big picture.
The other day, this was in the Trib:

Right now, MLB says they aren't going to cancel or postpone any games because of this virus (here's a Passan article about it), but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that should things turn worse, well... see above. 
MLB has created an internal task force to deal with this, and so far they've established some common sense rules like no shaking hands with fans or using their pens to sign their baseballs. 
I'm sure there's a mad scramble trying to figure that all out and I'm not here to guess what those plans might be, but I'm preparing myself for this year to be quite different.
Whatever happens, as they say, that's baseball.

Okay, today at 2:10 central it's Cubs vs Sox, and I think it's Lester v Giolito.
The Sox, now having signed Yoan Moncada after already signing Luis Robert and ex-Cub Eloy Jimenez, are showing a strategy based on locking in their core with long term contracts.
Might bite 'em later, but on the other hand maybe it's brilliant. 
Go Cubs, and...

Quick check in with the Cubs Bats.

Checking in with Cubs Bats.
Who's hot?
Ian Freaking Happ, that's who.
15 at bats, 7 hits with a double and a couple homers and 8 ribbies. Only one K. 
El Mago with 13 at bats, 7 hits with a couple dingers and... FOUR WALKS.
Albert Almora. 15 at bats, 8 hits, a double 2 homers and he drove in 6.
Victor Caratini with 2 doubles and a homer among his 4 hits in 10 at bats.

Super small sample but kinda fun.
Everybody's doing pretty okay except Daniel Descalso, who's 1 for 14 with 6 strikeouts.

And even if you weren't watching The Mic'd Up Game on ESPN a couple days ago, surely you've seen the clips.

Anthony Rizzo was up to bat with a microphone and earpiece talking to ESPN's Boog Sciambi. And Jessica Mendoza. And Kris Bryant.
He was down 2 strikes and was choking up, as we've seen him do a million times, and somebody asked why.
He immediately said, "Because I don't like to strike out. You can't do anything good if you strike out."
Love that.
He also said he was doing some math in his head trying to guess what the next pitch would be.
Mendoza asked him what he thought it was, Rizzo said that he didn't know and would "someone bang for me?"
BA HAHAHAHAHA*!
Between he, Bryant and, over on the other side, Joe Maddon... this was without a doubt the most entertaining Spring Training broadcast I've ever seen.
And of course immediately EVERYONE wants to see this mic'd up technique EVERYWHERE, but I promise that it'll be super hard to get other players to be as good. 
Anyway, just a quickie check in on a Tuesday.
Go Cubs!