Last year at this time I was in Miami at the All Star Game with my son, Adam. I will see him and his family at Wrigley Field in Chicago in a few weeks, where I’ll meet my new granddaughter, Nora Grace, for the very first time. It may seem like an unusual place for a meeting with a baby, but for our family it’s the next best thing to a baptism. My first grand daughter, Maddux Alexander, was named after Cubs’ Hall of Famer, Greg Maddux, while it’s probably no coincidence that this one’s middle name is Grace, perhaps after first-baseman Mark Grace, who had to go to the Diamondbacks to win a World Series. My son claims that the name Grace was actually in honor of his favorite grandmother. Only my grandson, Gavyn Riley, has no apparent name connection to the Cub’s, but his mother was not a lifetime Cubs fan like my son’s wife, who put her stamp of approval on Maddux and Grace. Gavyn, Adam, and I do have our own “3 GENERATIONS” brick at the ballpark, a gift from my wife, that is now eleven years old, commemorating Gavyn’s very first Cubs game at Wrigley Field. We’ll all undoubtedly gather around the brick for a family photo. I should mention that Gavyn’s last name is Jordan, so maybe Michael Jordan was an influence, since my oldest grandchild was not born in baseball season like his two younger sisters.
It’s been quite a season already for the Cubs, who once again won in comeback fashion last night against the Padres. I believe it is the 30th game they’ve won this year in that manner to lead the Majors. They’ve won 54 games (updated to 55) and regardless of what happens today (they ended up winning 7-4) will lead the National League Central Division at the All Star break (by 2.5 games), a big improvement over last year. They have more losses than my White Sox have wins. The Boston Red Sox lead the Majors at this point in the season with an impressive 67 victories (just updated to 68), another first-half record, while the Yankees, Astros, and Mariners each have more wins than the Cubs. These Cubbies are this year’s version of the “comeback kids,” not exactly comforting from my standpoint. Their relief pitching seems to be better than their starting pitching, but this is deceiving since they also score a lot of late runs. Last night, it was 11 runs, the 15th time they’ve scored in double digits already this season. The bad news is that they are a very slow starting team (but thankfully not today with a 5-0 edge) and this could ultimately “come back” to haunt them. We’ll see what happens after the All Star break this week.
Go Cubs and starting MLB All-Stars Javier Baez, Willson Contreras, and Jon Lester! So long, coach Mike Matheny who’s been fired by the rival Cardinals (they won today under an interim coach).
