April 10, 2018 • Chicago Tribune, With Anthony Rizzo going on DL, Ben Zobrist's early hitting comforting

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-ben-zobrist-20180409-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Cubs' Anthony Rizzo placed on DL, should be ready for Cardinals series http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-anthony-rizzo-20180409-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Column: Snow job? Cubs postpone while White Sox play — and both teams made

right call http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/ct-spt-haugh-cubs-white-sox-snow-20180409-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, What we learned at the Cubs' snowed-out home opener

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-snowed-out-home-opener-sullivan-20180409-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Despite Ian Happ's struggles, Cubs manager Joe Maddon keeping him at leadoff

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-notes-ian-happ-slump-20180409-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Cubs' home opener against Pirates postponed to Tuesday http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-pirates-20180409-story.html

• Chicago Sun-Times, Cubs’ home opener postponed due to weather, field conditions

https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/chicago-cubs-home-opener-delayed-weather-forecast/ • Chicago Sun-Times, How a hand injury might take Kris Bryant’s MVP game to another level for

Cubs https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/how-a-hand-injury-might-take-kris-bryants-mvp-game-to-another-level-for-cubs/

• Chicago Sun-Times, Too good to dance after every homer? Say it ain’t so, Cubs relievers https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/too-good-to-dance-say-it-aint-so-cubs-relievers/

• Chicago Sun-Times, How much faith is too much when it comes to Cubs leadoff hitter Ian Happ? https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/chicago-cubs-ian-happ-kyle-schwarber-joe-maddon-ben-zobrist/

• Chicago Sun-Times, White Sox head groundskeeper: Cubs made ‘right decision’ postponing home

opener https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/white-sox-head-groundskeeper-cubs-made-right-decision-postponing-home-opener/

• Daily Herald, Rozner: Cubs just about ready to get hot

http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20180409/rozner-cubs-just-about-ready-to-get-hot • Daily Herald, Cubs bullpen off to a solid start; Rizzo likely to DL

http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20180409/cubs-bullpen-off-to-a-solid-start-rizzo-likely-to-dl • Daily Herald, Cubs, Maddon content to give Opening Day a second chance Tuesday

http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20180409/cubs-maddon-content-to-give-opening-day-a-second-chance-tuesday

• Daily Herald, Snow postpones Cubs' home opener to Tuesday http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20180409/snow-postpones-cubs-home-opener-to-tuesday

• Daily Herald, What's new, improved at Wrigley Field this season http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20180407/whats-new-improved-at-wrigley-field-this-season

• The Athletic, Riding the high of early-season success, Cubs bullpen emerges as team strength

https://theathletic.com/307226/2018/04/10/riding-the-high-of-early-season-success-cubs-bullpen-emerges-as-team-strength/

• The Athletic, Anthony Rizzo’s back injury lands Cubs star on the disabled list

https://theathletic.com/307475/2018/04/09/anthony-rizzos-back-injury-pushes-cubs-star-to-the-disabled-list/

• The Athletic, Why Ben Zobrist is looking like a World Series MVP again

https://theathletic.com/306908/2018/04/09/why-ben-zobrist-is-looking-like-a-world-series-mvp-again/

• Cubs.com, Back issue likely to land Rizzo on DL https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/anthony-rizzo-headed-to-dl-with-back-injury/c-271493810

• Cubs.com, Cubs' home opener rescheduled for today https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/cubs-home-opener-postponed/c-271436986

• Cubs.com, Szczur sends Ricketts gift for Wrigley Suite https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/matt-szczur-gives-tom-ricketts-painting/c-271439488

• Cubs.com, Maddon won't rush to judgement with Happ

https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/ian-happ-struggling-at-leadoff-for-cubs/c-271453216 • ESPNChicago.com, Anthony Rizzo (back) to miss fourth straight game

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23090403/chicago-cubs-anthony-rizzo-back-miss-fourth-straight-game

• NBC Sports Chicago, Glanville: My memories of Opening Day at Wrigley Field

http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/glanville-my-memories-opening-day-wrigley-field • NBC Sports Chicago, The art of the walk-up song: How Cubs choose their music

http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/art-walk-song-how-cubs-choose-their-music-rizzo-schwarber-zobrist-russell-david-ross-wrigley-field

• NBC Sports Chicago, The best moments in the history of Cubs home openers

http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/best-moments-history-cubs-home-openers-wrigley-field-mark-grace-rizzo

-- Chicago Tribune With Anthony Rizzo going on DL, Ben Zobrist's early hitting comforting By Mark Gonzales Monday’s postponement of the Cubs’ home opener allowed more time for Anthony Rizzo’s lower back to loosen. While Rizzo tries to regain full range of motion without any lingering stiffness, manager Joe Maddon is batting Ben Zobrist behind Kris Bryant — one of a variety of roles in which Maddon likes using the switch hitter. “Right now Zobrist is swinging as well as anybody on this team,” Maddon said. The game against the Pirates was rescheduled to 1:20 p.m. Tuesday, with home-opener ceremonies scheduled to begin at 12:45. Tyler Chatwood is scheduled to start for the Cubs. For Maddon, Zobrist’s early emergence is a welcome relief as he attempts to spread playing time evenly among Ian Happ and Kyle Schwarber — both in the midst of strikeout-prone slumps — and Albert Almora Jr. Zobrist, 36, has invigorated an inconsistent offense that has struggled with runners in scoring position. He has batted in four spots in the first nine games and was scheduled to bat third Monday for the second consecutive game after going 2-for-4 with a home run in a 3-0 victory Sunday in Milwaukee. Zobrist, who is batting .400 from the left side and .300 from the right side, seemed pleasantly surprised by his success after missing nearly the first two weeks of spring training because of lower back stiffness and being limited to 34 at-bats. “As a switch hitter, it’s so hard to find that feel early on,” Zobrist said. “It’s like you’re two different hitters, two different people on different sides of the plate, and you have to switch on and off. Sometimes it takes longer to get into that. I’m excited where I’m at now, and you just try to keep it going. “You know you’re going to have some downs and not feeling great, but you try to stay on top of it.” Zobrist credited hitting coach Chili Davis, a productive switch hitter for 19 seasons, as well as assistant hitting coach Andy Haines and advance scouting coordinator Nate Halm for “helping me nail things down quickly.” The early surge has put Maddon’s mind at ease after he had reservations about Zobrist’s readiness at the end of spring training and met with him before the regular season. It’s also reminiscent of Zobrist’s performance in May 2016, when he batted .406 and earned the nod as the National League All-Star second baseman.

Perhaps the biggest factor is that Zobrist appears fully healed from left wrist inflammation he suffered last season on a swing at Dodger Stadium on May 26. He tried to play through the pain, but his batting average dropped 43 points to .223 until he was placed on the 15-day disabled list. Zobrist let his wrist heal in the offseason while working on strengthening his core. He was delighted to report at the Cubs Convention three months ago that he was able to swing from both sides of the plate pain-free. He said the dialogue between him, his coaches and support staff doesn’t resemble a parent-teacher conference. “They’re listening to us,” Zobrist said. “We’re trying to communicate more of what we’re experiencing so they can make those decisions with us. It’s like before and after, what was I thinking? What did I do? What did I like and not like? “You learn quicker by processing those moments.” -- Chicago Tribune Cubs' Anthony Rizzo placed on DL, should be ready for Cardinals series By Mark Gonzales The Cubs took the cautious route Monday by placing first baseman Anthony Rizzo on the 10-day disabled list, retroactive to April 6. The move, expected to be formally announced Tuesday, will allow Rizzo ample time to be ready for an NL Central showdown against the Cardinals at Wrigley Field starting April 16.. Rizzo has been nagged by back discomfort since April 2 at Cincinnati and tried to play through the stiffness until his back tightened up Friday. Rizzo, a three-time NL All-Star, is hitting .107 (3-for-28) so far this season. By putting Rizzo on the DL now, the Cubs can make a corresponding move before Tuesday‘s game and be at full strength. -- Chicago Tribune Column: Snow job? Cubs postpone while White Sox play — and both teams made right call By David Haugh You know what they say about the weather in Chicago. If you don’t like it, wait 15 minutes. Or is it, if you don’t like the weather, go eight miles south? That was the case Monday in the city spring forgot, where enough snow fell at Wrigley Field for the Cubs to postpone their home opener 24 hours to 1:20 p.m. Tuesday. Yet the White Sox’s 5-4 loss to the Rays started only 20 minutes late Monday on the South Side despite 2 inches of the white stuff greeting head

groundskeeper Roger Bossard at 5:20 a.m. when he arrived at Guaranteed Rate Field. It created such a wintry scene that the giant video board carried the message pregame: “Happy Holidays.’’ The legend of “The Sodfather” grows. “Disco Demolition in 1979 was horrific day for me, and this wasn’t as bad as that, but still one heck of a challenge,’’ said Bossard, who has been saving Sox playing surfaces since 1967. “I have to be honest with you. I got hold of my crew when everyone came in at 7 and said I wanted to get this done. I love the challenge and have to thank my crew.’’ The Sox played a game against the Rays, the Cubs blamed bad conditions for scrapping theirs with the Pirates, and both teams did the right thing. Anybody driving to Wrigleyville from Chicago’s southern corridor Monday morning understood that quirky dynamic based on how snowy traveling became just north of the Loop. Nobody wins with left fielder Kyle Schwarber chasing a fly ball on such a slick surface. “Just too much lake-effect snow,’’ Cubs business president Crane Kenney told reporters outside the clubhouse. On the frozen grounds of the Park at Wrigley, four snowmen fans built made Kenney’s description easy to believe. So did the snowballs thrown by catcher Willson Contreras, a Venezuelan seeing snow for the second time in person. The Cubs had a scheduled off day Tuesday as protection against weather wiping out the home opener. The Sox had no such luxury with the Rays making their only visit to the South Side and an organizational charity event Tuesday night, making a Wednesday doubleheader nobody relished playing the only alternative, according to a team official. Frustrated Cubs fans who took a day off work to attend Monday’s game at Wrigley probably still wonder whether the Cubs could have played if they had started clearing snow as early as the Sox and Bossard did. Two groups of people stopped me on Waveland Avenue on my way from Wrigley to 35th and Shields — both of whom lived a two-hour drive away — to question why the Sox still were playing when the Cubs didn’t. Sorry, only Mother Nature and The Sodfather know for sure. Bossard reported 2.25 inches of snow at his ballpark and immediately started spraying water — which comes out between 48 and 50 degrees in Chicago — to melt eight hours before the scheduled first pitch. To remove the rest, Bossard came up with an unorthodox plan for his 23-person crew to clear what he estimated was between 200 and 300 tons of snow. “I made my lawnmowers into snowplows and just pushed it off with the mowers,’’ said Bossard, 69. “Every once in awhile, I come up with some crazy stuff and this time it worked. I tricked them again.’’ Not that Bossard believes trickery could have helped his good friend Justin Spillman, the Cubs groundskeeper. Spillman also tried using the sprinklers to melt more snow than Bossard had to confront but his crews didn’t begin clearing it until after the team postponed the game just after 11. The Cubs originally delayed the first pitch to 2:20 before calling it altogether an hour later, with manager Joe Maddon’s blessing. “On the way out I had no idea if I was going to the Cubs Convention (in January) or opening day, so I thought it was the right thing to do,” Maddon said. Every weary reliever in the Cubs’ active bullpen agreed.

“I’m glad it was them and not me,’’ said Bossard, who communicated with Spillman throughout Monday morning. “Justin Spillman is one of the better young groundskeepers in baseball and used the water procedure too. But if you have more than two inches of snow, you’re not going to be able to do it. They made the right call. They had more snow.’’ Blame Lake Michigan more than the Cubs, says ABC-7 meteorologist Cheryl Scott. Whenever a northeast wind blows off the lake, as it did Monday, Scott said Wrigley Field will be affected more than Guaranteed Rate Field. Cubs officials read from the same weather radar the city’s meteorologists do. “The forecast called for more on and off snow showers through the early afternoon and the focus was along the lakefront because of boundary layer convergence and the influence of a northeast wind off the lake,’’ Scott said. Scott Stombaugh, a Cubs season-ticket holder who lives in Bloomington, Ill., received the bad news on his phone just after pulling into his parking spot near Wrigley. Stombaugh’s 10-year-old son, Wesley, reminded dad the Sox were in town too. “Wesley said, ‘Let’s go,’ ’’ said Scott, who quickly bought four tickets for $53 online. “We can’t get enough baseball.’’ Sitting three rows behind the Rays dugout, the Stombaughs sat in a crowd that looked like a gathering of Sox friends and relatives — from small families. Seats were open enough that Sox vice president Brooks Boyer instructed ushers to let people sit as close as they wanted. The Sox announced paid attendance at 10,377, an inflated number that included hundreds of fans in Cubs gear whose day got better heading south. -- Chicago Tribune What we learned at the Cubs' snowed-out home opener By Paul Sullivan What we learned Monday during the Cubs’ home-opener snowout: Turning on the sprinklers at Wrigley Field with snow on the grass was not accidental. When the Cubs turned on the sprinklers in the morning, most assumed it was an accident. The snow-covered field was bad enough. Why make it even soggier? “It’s an interesting question,” Chairman Tom Ricketts said. “The way they melt the snow is to put water on it and then squeegee off the moisture. That’s the strategy anyway.” Whether the strategy would have worked became moot when the game was postponed until Tuesday. Obviously the playing conditions would have been subpar at best, and the chances of injury likely would have increased with a wetter surface. Ricketts said players’ health is “always a consideration,” but added: “We don’t want to (postpone) the game lightly. We have (Tuesday) to reschedule, but you never know what tomorrow is going to be like. Unfortunately, weather predictions aren’t predictable enough to really lean on, regardless of what the actual weather does.”

Maybe he doesn’t know Tom Skilling. The Cubs bullpen dancing after home runs no longer will be an automatic occurrence at Wrigley. Carl Edwards Jr. revealed that the relievers’ custom of dancing after homers is being altered. “It probably won’t be every home run,” Edwards said. “Maybe a big home run. Like, down by one, a two-run homer. Or tie ballgame, (a) go-ahead homer.” The dancing got so much publicity last year, the Cubs have scheduled a “Dancing bullpen” tumbler giveaway April 28 against the Brewers. It was a risky move by the marketing department, knowing what happened on Randy Myers poster giveaway day in 1993, when fans littered the field with the posters after a blown save against the Giants. Why the change after only one year? “It’s not really a change,” Edwards said. “Last year, late in the year, we stopped dancing. It was nice. It was fun. We’ll still do it.” A conspiracy theorist accused Edwards of “big-leaguing” the dancing now that the Cubs lead the majors with an 0.94 bullpen ERA. “Not big-leaguing the dancing,” Edwards said. “Just have to do a little bit more choreography, man.” With each home run judged on its own merits now, how will the relievers know whether it’s time to dance or to continue sitting? Edwards said they will just give each other “that look,” and then they’ll all start dancing. They like to keep fans guessing. “Only time will tell,” he said. New closer Brandon Morrow will not have to dance, according to Morrow. “I won’t be dancing,” he declared Tuesday. Last year’s closer, Wade Davis, either didn’t have to dance or declined to dance, depending on whom you ask. Closers typically don’t even go out to the bullpen until later in the game. Morrow, closing for the first time in his career, said he has a couple of entrance songs in mind but doesn’t want to reveal one yet. “It’s not that big a deal,” he said. “I don’t even know if I’ll stick with the same one. I might switch them up. I know most people stick with one, but maybe I’ll (mix it up), depending on how it feels.” The ramp to the upper deck now includes some stairs near the top. Maybe this is an aesthetic improvement over the long and winding ramp, but it probably will cause more congestion going down after games. It takes longer to walk down the individual steps than it would to go with the flow of people down the ramp.

The Hotel Zachary has nice robes. Many of the rooms in the new Hotel Zachary, which has opened on Clark Street across from the ballpark, include an up-close view of the west side of Wrigley Field. More than a couple of the occupants were standing in front of their windows Tuesday morning wearing white robes from the hotel, seemingly oblivious to the fact they can be seen from the park or street. -- Chicago Tribune Despite Ian Happ's struggles, Cubs manager Joe Maddon keeping him at leadoff By Mark Gonzales Manager Joe Maddon was fully committed to using Kyle Schwarber as the Cubs’ primary leadoff hitter through the first month of 2017, and he isn’t about to give up on Ian Happ in that role after only nine games this year. “You have to give a guy a chance,” Maddon said of Happ, who is batting .174 with a .240 on-base percentage and 14 strikeouts in 23 at-bats in the leadoff spot. “You don’t want to jump to conclusions too quickly. So we’ll just continue to work through it.” Happ was scheduled to lead off Monday before the home opener was postponed because of inclement weather. “I want to show some confidence in him right now,” Maddon said. “What’s going on is a little abnormal. We’ve seen him in the past swing and miss, but he’s a streaky guy. And I think once he gets a feel for it, he hits the ball very hard when he’s on. I want to stay with it.” It was only two weeks ago that Happ concluded spring training with a .321 average and .400 on-base percentage — primarily from the leadoff spot — to sell Maddon on the idea of using him there. Maddon reaffirmed his plans to stick with him. “When you start making rash decisions too early, you can injure or destroy confidence, which I don’t want to do,” Maddon said. “I’ve been through it enough. It’s early.” Snow day: Many players seized the moment by posing for photos in the snow and conducting snowball fights. “Opening day at (Triple-A) Iowa in 2015 wasn’t snowing, but it was cold and pouring rain and we played through it,” outfielder Albert Almora Jr. recalled. “It was unique, but I’ve never played in snow. I was kind of excited and nervous.” Left-hander Drew Smyly, on the 60-day disabled list, flew from Arizona so he could participate in home-opener festivities. “I asked if I could spend more time with the team, and they were all for it,” said Smyly, recovering from Tommy John elbow surgery. “It’s good to get out of Arizona and be with all the guys.” Even going from 90-degree temperatures to snow?

“It was refreshing to me,” Smyly said. -- Chicago Tribune Cubs' home opener against Pirates postponed to Tuesday By Mark Gonzales The Cubs’ home opener Monday against the Pirates has been postponed because of inclement weather at Wrigley Field. The game is scheduled to be played at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday. The start time was initially pushed back one hour as the grounds crew worked to prepare the field. “On the way out I had no idea if I was going to Cubs Convention or opening day, so I thought it was the right thing to do,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “I woke up and saw everything going on. I looked at the (weather) map and looked at (Tuesday) being an open date with a much better forecast, so I thought it would be the prudent thing, and we did it.” Tyler Chatwood will start Tuesday for the Cubs. Maddon wasn’t sure if first baseman Anthony Rizzo would be ready. Rizzo has missed the last three games because of lower back stiffness and wasn’t scheduled to start Monday. -- Chicago Sun-Times Cubs’ home opener postponed due to weather, field conditions By Madeline Kenney A light dusting of snow covered Wrigley Field and most of the exposed level-100 seating area. It was beginning to look a lot more like a December Bears’ game rather than the Cubs’ home opener in April. The Cubs postponed Monday’s home opener against the Pirates to Tuesday at 1:20 p.m. after the snow wouldn’t stop. Tuesday was previously scheduled as an off day. This is the second time this season the Cubs have had a game postponed, the first one being in Ohio against the Reds on April 3. On his way to the ballpark, manager Joe Maddon had a feeling the game wasn’t going to be played. “On the way out I had no idea if I was going to Cub Convention or Opening Day,” Maddon said. “So I thought [cancelling the game] was the right thing to do.” Player safety is “always a consideration,” Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said. “Air temp we can live with,” Ricketts said before the game was postponed. “It’s just we have to get the field clear — obviously you don’t want anyone to slip and fall.” But the Cubs initially weren’t so quick to call the game off.

At first, the Cubs postponed their game by one hour to 2:20 p.m. Several workers shoveled slush between aisles in the 100-level seating area, while others used hand-held blowers to remove snow from the seats. On the field, a combination of slush and snow sat on the tarp, while the sprinklers went off in the uncovered outfield. While the sprinklers going off seemed counterintuitive, the Cubs claim there’s a method to the madness. The precipitation helps melt the ice and make it easier for the crew to remove the snow, Ricketts said. Just after 11 a.m., the Cubs finally made the call to postpone the game. The Cubs’ pitching rotation will remain the same, Maddon said. Right-hander Tyler Chatwood, who was set to pitch Monday, will be ready to go Tuesday. The Pirates will likely start right-hander Ivan Nova, who was also assigned to pitch Monday. Although the home opener brings a special type of excitement to Wrigley Field, reliever Carl Edwards Jr. didn’t seem to bummed that the team wouldn’t be playing in 30-degree weather. “It’s a long season,” Edwards said. “So postponing a couple of these games, it’s fine. We don’t have a problem with it.” Closer Brandon Morrow echoed his teammate: “Unfortunately we couldn’t get it in, but we’ve got tomorrow.” Several players plan to rejuvenate Monday in preparation to play nine straight games. But reliever Steve Cishek wanted to make the most of his snow day. He said he’s going to try to build a snowman with his daughter. -- Chicago Sun-Times How a hand injury might take Kris Bryant’s MVP game to another level for Cubs By Gordon Wittenmyer Almost nine months after injuring his left hand sliding headfirst into third base in Atlanta, Kris Bryant still feels it whenever he tries to crack his knuckles — the sensitive area near the base of his pinkie and ring fingers. “It’s like, ‘Oh, I slid into a third baseman’s foot last year. That’s why I can’t do that,’ ” he said. But he wouldn’t choose to have it any other way. “It’s just something I played through last year, and I’m glad I did, because my year turned out great,” the Cubs third baseman said. “At the end of the year, I can look back on it and be satisfied with it because I went through a lot to get where I ended up.” Bryant said the residual effects of the injury — resulting from scar tissue, he has been told — aren’t noticeable when he plays. But they were noticeable last year, even though he missed just one game with what was called a sprained pinkie. His power numbers dipped, but he stayed in the lineup as the Cubs charged down the stretch to a come-from-behind division title and a first-round playoff series victory.

He finished the season with a .946 OPS. He also finished third among National League players in WAR (Fangraphs.com) and seventh in NL MVP voting. After four consecutive seasons of Bryant winning awards as the top player in college, the top player in the minors, the top NL rookie and then NL MVP in 2016, the joke was about what new level he’d reach in 2017. He thinks the injury might have been a measure of that new level. And if his start to this season means anything, he might be right. “There’s always going to be something throughout the year that you have to battle through,” Bryant said, “whether it be your mental demons, your body’s not feeling right, you’re hurt, coming off an injury — all that stuff plays into how you feel out there. “Last year, definitely, my hand didn’t feel great, but I was pretty proud of the way I came through that and learned how to deal with that. . . . I learned a lot about what I can tolerate, just from my experience last year.” It was the closest thing to a significant injury he has had in his baseball career. “I’ve never really had to play through pain before,” he said. “It’d be pretty easy to continue to get better if you just went out there and felt great every day.” In fact, as he has returned to good health this year, he has made the first nine games of the season look almost easy. The most productive hitter during the Cubs’ grinding, 5-4 season-opening road trip, Bryant went 12-for-37 (.324) with six extra-base hits and eight walks. He already has two games in which he has reached base five times (albeit one of them was a 17-inning game). That includes Saturday’s 5-2 victory in Milwaukee in which he hit a tying homer, tripled, had an infield single and walked twice (once intentionally). “He’s just getting good at-bat after good at-bat,” manager Joe Maddon said. “I think 95 percent of his at-bats have been good.” Whether Bryant is headed for a third All-Star selection in his four seasons, he at least has reached another stage in his career. “Our sport is unlike any other out there,” he said. “We’re playing every day, through the weather conditions — cold, hot, humid, whatever it is. But I think that ultimately makes us better players and better people, just because we do know what it takes to reach a goal that we set for ourselves. And playing through injury helps that.” -- Chicago Sun-Times Too good to dance after every homer? Say it ain’t so, Cubs relievers By Gordon Wittenmyer

The Cubs’ dancing bullpen was so popular at home games last season that the team will be giving away “Dancing Bullpen beverage tumblers” before a game against the Brewers near the end of the month. But to hear “Dancing With the Bullpen” star Carl Edwards Jr. talk the last couple of days, the promotional tumbler might be outdated by the time anybody sees one. It seems the Cubs’ relievers are too good these days for such frivolity just because a teammate hits a home run. Edwards suggested the bullpen guys might only dance for “big” home runs — and he made no promises about what will be considered big enough. The postponement of the home opener Monday kept fans from possibly finding out, but we can certainly see where this is going. “No, we’re not big-leaguing the dancing,” Edwards said with a smile. “We’ve just got to get a little bit more choreography, man.” Choreography. “You’ll be surprised,” he said. “We’re keeping a lot of secrets this year. People will be wondering the whole time, ‘I wonder if they’re going to dance.’ ” Not that the Cubs’ rebuilt bullpen needs such intrigue to keep people watching. In fact, the relief corps was the part of the opening road trip most worth watching. The eight-man crew boasts a major-league-leading 0.94 ERA in 38„ innings, with a streak of 11 consecutive batters retired heading into the season’s first homestand. “Even from the start, I’ve been saying this is the deepest bullpen I think I’ve ever been a part of,” said side-arming newcomer Steve Cishek, a ninth-year veteran of five big-league teams. “Any one of us can pitch in any situation. And we have all sorts of different looks coming out of there. “I feel like we’re locked in right now. We just need to keep the momentum going.” The bullpen hasn’t collectively proven to be the lock-down, pure strike throwers that team president Theo Epstein had talked about adding for 2018. Justin Wilson has looked mostly dominating, but he also reverted to late-2017 troubles with three consecutive walks out of nowhere Friday. And the group ranks in the lower half of the league with 15 walks. But Edwards seems to have more consistent command, the newcomers have been exceptional and the group has allowed only 23 hits. And that 0.94 ERA is the lowest for a Cubs bullpen through nine games since 1951. “I’ll take it,” manager Joe Maddon said. “Plus, we have stuff, too. But the big thing, for me, is we need to throw strikes. We’ve been able to do that so far.” The bullpen didn’t have a ninth-inning save situation until its eighth game of the season. But then new closer Brandon Morrow suddenly emerged from his first-week slumber to throw 97 mph fastballs and record back-to-back saves against the Brewers on Saturday and Sunday in Milwaukee, retiring six of seven batters.

“I feel we’ve got everything we need,” said Edwards, who broke in during the 2016 championship season. “This year, I feel like we have a complete bullpen. We’ve got two guys that can go long. We’ve got a great closer. We’ve got anybody that can set him up.” The only thing left is the “choreography.” “Only time will tell,” Edwards said. -- Chicago Sun-Times How much faith is too much when it comes to Cubs leadoff hitter Ian Happ? By Rick Morrissey The last thing the Cubs want is another faith-vs.-reason debate when it comes to their leadoff hitter. They invested a massive amount of faith in Kyle Schwarber in the leadoff spot last season, sticking with him well beyond the point that reason suggested was prudent. Actually, by the time manager Joe Maddon finally pulled Schwarber after six terrible weeks, reason was unconscious from repeatedly slamming its head against a wall. It’s why everyone is a tad nervous about leadoff man Ian Happ’s rough start. He has struck out a National League-leading 17 times in seven games, which is ceiling-fan territory. He whiffed four times Thursday and three more times Saturday against the Brewers, though he did knock in two runs with a ninth-inning flare to left-center. He led off in both games. In the Cubs’ nine games, he has led off five times. He was supposed to be in that spot again Monday against the Pirates, but the Cubs’ home opener was snowed out. Would it have been better for him to get back on the horse Monday? Or is it better that he’ll work in better weather conditions during the redo Tuesday at Wrigley Field? Wait, haven’t his early-season struggles mostly come in warm weather or ballparks with retractable roofs? It’s a touchy situation. It’s not Happ’s fault that the Cubs have been unable to find a serviceable replacement for Dexter Fowler since he left for the Cardinals after the 2016 championship season. It wasn’t Schwarber’s fault last season, either. But the Cubs still have to have someone bat first in the first inning, and the preference is that it be the same person every game. So far, they’ve managed to put themselves in the same situation this season as last, elevating a young player into a very visible spot in the lineup. It means that when that player is struggling, as Happ is with a .179 batting average, the Cubs have to consider more than just how to get him out of his slump. They have to consider what pulling a 23-year-old from the top spot would do to his long-term confidence, just as they have to consider what leaving him there to struggle would do to his self-belief. ‘‘He’s quite a talent,’’ Maddon said of Happ. ‘‘And he’s going to be fine. You’ve just got to play through it. When you start making rash decisions too early, I think you can injure or destroy confidence, which I don’t want to do. Been through it enough. It’s early.’’ There weren’t many good things to take away from the Schwarber debacle, but an obvious lesson is not to stick with a slumping leadoff hitter for so long. Not when he’s hitting .204 on April 30, .198 on May 7

or .179 on May 14. Don’t expect this to be a monthlong pep rally for Happ if he continues to sputter. No one knows if Schwarber’s 2017 would have been better had Maddon given up on his experiment much earlier, but it’s hard to see how it could have been worse. How much faith is too much faith? It’s a question the Cubs hoped they wouldn’t have to entertain with Happ, certainly not after only nine games. But people already are raising their hands to ask it. Without uttering a word, Maddon has responded with Albert Almora Jr. (three times) and Ben Zobrist (once) in the leadoff spot. ‘‘I just want to show some confidence in [Happ] right now,’’ Maddon said. ‘‘What I think is going on is a little bit abnormal in a sense. We’ve seen him swing and miss in the past. He’s a very streaky guy. I think once he gets a feel for it, you’re going to start seeing the ball get hit like he’s [accustomed to]. He hits the ball really hard when he’s on.’’ As we saw with Schwarber, having too much belief in a player can become as much a disservice to him as having too little. When you’re batting seventh or eighth, it’s easier to deal with a slump and easier to come out of one. It’s not so easy when you’re leading off and everyone is analyzing your every facial tic. ‘‘They’re talked to during these moments,’’ Maddon said. ‘‘You talk them off a ledge a couple of times, but you also have to show faith in them and not run away from them so quickly.’’ Happ hit a home run on the first pitch of the season. That came in Miami, and he immediately was greeted as the answer to the Cubs’ leadoff prayers. So in a twisted sense, it probably makes sense that his mini-slump is being viewed with emotions normally found in End Times literature. Nine games into the season, somewhere in between the two extremes might be more appropriate. And if Happ the leadoff hitter still is hitting poorly after another nine games? Then the Apocalypse will be upon us. Legendary Sun-Times sports columnists Rick Morrissey and Rick Telander are co-hosts of a new podcast called ‘‘The Two Ricks: Unfiltered.’’ Don’t miss their gritty, no-holds-barred takes on everything from professional teams tanking to overzealous sports parents and more. Download and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts and Google Play or via RSS feed. -- Chicago Sun-Times White Sox head groundskeeper: Cubs made ‘right decision’ postponing home opener By Madeline Kenney The White Sox gave a tip of the hat to their crosstown rivals. The Cubs postponed their home opener against the Pirates from Monday to Tuesday due to inclement weather and poor field conditions. While the Cubs decided not to play, the White Sox managed to clean off the two inches of snow at Guaranteed Rate Field and have their field ready for first pitch at 1:30 p.m.

Some fans decided to troll the Cubs and the team’s grounds crew for not having the field ready, but White Sox head groundkeeper Roger Brossard believes the Cubs made the “right decision” by moving their game to Tuesday. The Cubs had roughly an inch more of snow on their field due to the “lake effect,” Bossard said. “They had more snow, so I get it,” he said. “[Cubs head groundskeeper Justin Spillman] was using the watering procedure, too. He’s a very knowledgeable, talented young groundskeeper. When you’ve got more than two inches of snow, when you’re at that three, three and a half level, they made the right call. “I’m glad it was them and not me. I’m glad I only had the two inches.” -- Daily Herald Rozner: Cubs just about ready to get hot By Barry Rozner It didn't feel much like Opening Day. More like part of the NHL Stadium Series, though it's been warmer for some of those hotly-contested matches than it was Monday at Wrigley Field. Sure, it had bunting. And there was supposed to be a ceremonial this and a ceremonial that. But, really, it would have been the 10th game of the season for a Cubs team trying to get on a roll after a couple of weekend wins in Milwaukee. There was a little pomp, a tad of circumstance and a lot of snow, but for some reason the Cubs were intent on pretending there was a prayer the game would be played. The truth is the Cubs could have called the game Sunday night -- or Saturday or Friday, for that matter. Apparently, MLB thought this was a big deal and insisted the Cubs try to play amid the snowplows. So they had the grounds crew shovel the tarp, run sprinklers in the outfield and fight the good fight against the ice covering the grass. They even moved the game time back an hour at 9:30 and then finally canceled the game at 11 a.m. For anyone observing the blizzard on the North Side, it was somewhere south of shocking that they called it a day. So the Cubs will try again Tuesday afternoon when the forecast is for clear skies and 46 degrees, a far cry from the season opener 12 days ago in Miami, where they somehow managed to lose a pair of games to the miserable Marlins, who were stuck on two victories until taking down the Phillies and Jake Arrieta Sunday. It was an unspectacular road trip that featured a bit of good, a bit of bad and a lot of mediocre.

"We haven't been home for a while. Christmas was the last time we were home," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. "It's been a tough road trip because it's been long." It's an odd start, for certain, with three road cities and two postponements before introductions at Wrigley Field Tuesday, but the Cubs managed to salvage the journey with a rally Saturday and a strong performance from Jose Quintana Sunday. That's really what the ugly was about on the road, the starting pitching. Quintana followed up an awful start with a good one. Jon Lester has had one good and one bad, as have Kyle Hendricks and Yu Darvish. Tyler Chatwood allowed only a run on 4 hits in 6 innings of his only start, but also walked six in a 1-0 loss in Cincinnati. The defense and baserunning have been uneven, but the truth -- as always -- is that the Cubs will be great if their starting pitching is great. The bullpen, a question coming in, has been fantastic in a small sample, and the offense hasn't done much, contributing 26 of its 39 runs in 3 games. Of course, Anthony Rizzo missed the last 3 games with a bad lower back and is hitting .107. Rizzo keys the lineup and they need him healthy, so with four days off already the disabled list isn't a terrible idea. This doesn't work without Rizzo delivering in big situations. So you add it up and 5-4 isn't bad for the way the Cubs have played, and if their starters find some consistency the Cubs should start to roll here soon. A sudden end to winter might help. -- Daily Herald Cubs bullpen off to a solid start; Rizzo likely to DL By Bruce Miles One of the biggest areas of concern heading into the Cubs' season was how the bullpen would perform. Through the first nine games of the season, the relief corps have been one of the strengths of the team. Entering Monday's snowed-out home opener at Wrigley Field, Cubs relievers had thrown 38⅓ innings, posting a major-league best 0.94 ERA. They had given up 4 earned runs. Sporting ERAs of 0.00 are Brian Duensing, Brandon Morrow, Pedro Strop and Justin Wilson, who might be the most pleasant early surprise of all after last season's rough two months with the Cubs. Eddie Butler has an ERA of 1.13, and that includes a 7-inning performance at Miami. Steve Cishek is at 1.69. Carl Edwards Jr. is at 1.80. Mike Montgomery has an ERA of 2.70. Cubs relievers have given up 23 hits and 15 walks for a WHIP of 0.99.

"I don't see any reason we would have thought otherwise," said closer Morrow, who has 2 saves in 3 appearances. "We have a lot of guys with a lot of good stuff. When we continue to be in the strike zone like we have been, you see the results. Guys are getting quick outs and strikeouts when they need to. They've been eliminating the free passes for the most part, just going in with a lot of confidence and starting the season on the right foot." Walks were a problem for the bullpen last season, and one of the jobs facing management in the off-season was finding strike throwers to come on in relief. "I'll take it, plus we've got stuff, too," said manager Joe Maddon. "These guys are throwing strikes. You see Justin Wilson, what he's doing. C.J. (Edwards) throwing strikes is a force. Brandon, not having pitched for a bit, I didn't know what to expect the other day, and was sharp (in Milwaukee over the weekend). He was really sharp for two days in a row. They all look good. Eddie Butler is really surfacing. A lot of them are looking good right now." Rizzo likely to DL: First baseman Anthony Rizzo was not in Monday's scheduled lineup as a tight back continues to bother him. It's likely the Cubs will announce that Rizzo will be placed on the 10-day disabled list, retroactive to last Friday, April 6, meaning Rizzo will be halfway through the DL stint when it's announced. Rizzo has not played since last Thursday's series opener at Milwaukee. Ben Zobrist was in Monday's lineup at first base. "Talking to Riz yesterday, conversationally, it was getting better," Joe Maddon said. The new digs, and dugouts: Joe Maddon said he had yet to check out the new, expanded dugouts, which have been moved farther down the baselines toward the outfield walls. Both the home and visitors dugouts are split level. The new dugouts are part of the overall Wrigley Field renovation. "I thought we were going to play," Maddon said. "I was going to surprise myself. I'm going to try to get a workout in, and then I'll go look at the new stuff." -- Daily Herald Cubs, Maddon content to give Opening Day a second chance Tuesday By Bruce Miles The first signs weren't good, and things got worse from there Monday at Wrigley Field. Snow blanketed the playing field early in the morning, and odd as it seemed, the sprinklers were turned on to keep the grass warm. The ever-optimistic Cubs at first said the scheduled 1:20 p.m. game time would be moved back an hour so the grounds crew could clear and prepare the field. But the next signs that there would be no baseball came when a group of Cubs players, led by relief pitcher Carl Edwards Jr. started throwing snowballs instead of baseballs.

Their command appeared to be good. "Well, he's from South Carolina," manager Joe Maddon said of Edwards. "And the other guys were probably from Latin America, I would imagine. If you've never seen snow before, man, you're going to get out there and do something like that. If you're from Hazleton (Pennsylvania), I really don't need to see it." But seriously, Maddon was fine with Monday's postponement. "Well, on the way out, I had no idea if I was going to the Cub convention or Opening Day," he said. "So I thought it was the right thing to do. "I woke up and I saw everything going on, and you look at the map and you look at (Tuesday) being an open day with a much better forecast, I thought it would be the prudent thing, and we did it." Maddon confirmed that right-hander Tyler Chatwood, Monday's scheduled starter, would pitch the rescheduled opening-day game. The Cubs said they worked with Major League Baseball on whether to play Monday's game because of the special nature of Opening Day. But things got no better with the weather, and the grounds crew was still out with leaf blowers early Monday afternoon trying to clear the snow. Maddon also said the postponement does nothing to take away from the special nature of Opening Day, and he noted the Cubs have played nine games on the road already, going 5-4 and trailing the first-place Pirates by 2 games. The Cubs have pitched well overall, and their team ERA of 2.59 is second in the National League to the New York Mets' mark of 2.40. However, the team's batting average of .223 is fourth from the bottom. "I can't use bad weather as an excuse; we've been actually hitting in good weather," said Maddon, whose team opened in Miami and then played this past weekend in a domed stadium in Milwaukee. "So that's too bad. Hopefully we'll start hitting in bad weather. I'm looking that the paradoxical intent's going to occur right now." New Cubs closer Brandon Morrow, who pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers last year and the San Diego Padres before that, appeared to enjoy the snow, but he seemed as glad as anyone the Cubs will try it in better weather the rest of the week. "You want to get it in. Everybody's excited, wants to get it in today. That's just the way it works," Morrow said. "We'll get a better game in tomorrow. It's tough. I've played in a game like that before. My rookie year (with Seattle), we went into Cleveland and had four games snowed out. I think the first game we played 4⅔ (innings) and ended up having that one canceled. It got a little sloppy. Yeah, you'd rather have better conditions to play in." -- Daily Herald Snow postpones Cubs' home opener to Tuesday By Bruce Miles

The Chicago Cubs' home opener scheduled for this afternoon at Wrigley Field against the Pittsburgh Pirates has been postponed to 1:20 p.m. Tuesday because of snow. Gates to the ballpark are expected to open 11:20 a.m. on Tuesday. The Cubs initially had delayed Monday's start, pushing it back one hour, before making the decision to postpone the game. The Cub are the last team to play their home opener. They played their first nine games on the road, compiling a record of 5-4. Tyler Chatwood was scheduled to pitch for the Cubs today against Ivan Nova. The Pirates lead the National League Central with a 7-2 record. -- Daily Herald What's new, improved at Wrigley Field this season By Staff With the home opener set for Monday, Chicago Cubs officials unveiled some of the new improvements fans will see at Wrigley Field this season. Among the most significant changes: larger concourses to improve foot traffic flow, improved Wi-Fi service, new food and drink options, plus another private club opening for season ticket holders. The Cubs will host the Pittsburgh Pirates for a 1:20 p.m. game on Monday at the 104-year-old ballpark, and players will have a new perspective as well as the dugouts were moved 25-30 feet down the foul lines and expanded with more headroom. In addition, new batting cages have been built for both teams, plus a new weight and video room. "We have eight new concessions stand that are coming online, four of which will be ready on opening day," Cubs spokesman Julian Green told reporters Friday. Four more concessions stands are expected to be operating by June, Green said. The changes are part of a five-year, $750 million improvement plan for Wrigley Field that began at the end of the 2014 season. Among the new food choices will be the Clark Street Grill and a new cocktail concession stand. The 600-seat American Airlines Club 1914 is located behind home plate and will serve premier ticket holders. Outside the ballpark, visitors will notice the new Hotel Zachary as well as several news restaurants and shops in the area. The Hotel Zachary, a 175-room hotel across from Wrigley Field, is now open and it includes the Mordecai cocktail bar, the Big Star taqueria, a McDonald's restaurant and the West Town Bakery and Tap.

According to a Sun-Times report, a 2.5-acre project at Addison and Clark will be completed by the end of baseball season. It will include apartments, a 10-screen movie theater, bowling alley, a Shake Shack, 7-Eleven stores, a Harley-Davidson store and a baseball apparel store. • ABC 7 and the Chicago Sun-Times contributed to this report. For related coverage, check chicago.suntimes.com and abc7chicago.com. -- The Athletic Riding the high of early-season success, Cubs bullpen emerges as team strength By Sahadev Sharma The early results for the 2018 Cubs have been mixed. The offense is looking similar to the stop-and-go group from last season. Nearly two times through the rotation, each pitcher has had a start making onlookers wonder if they’ll be the best group in baseball or the most frustrating. But through nine games, the team sits at 5-4 and hardly any grand conclusions can be made. But if there's one unit manager Joe Maddon and company would love to see continue on its current path, it's the bullpen. A group that came in with the most questions after a rough 2017 has been utterly dominant through nine games. Cubs relievers are striking out 27.6 percent of the batters they face, fifth-best in baseball, and when they do allow balls in play, the defense is doing its job. The bullpen is allowing a .247 BABIP, aided by a 30.1 percent soft-hit rate, an MLB-best for relievers. Opponents are batting just .170 against the Cubs' 'pen, which has posted a 0.99 WHIP and most importantly, suppressed runs by posting a 0.94 ERA. A lot of these numbers will go in the other direction, it’s just the reality of baseball and bullpens. The Cubs relievers aren’t going to allow zero home runs all season long and deliver a 90 percent LOB%. But there are so many bright spots, it’s hard not for them to step on the mound with a load of confidence and feed off each other’s strong performances. “We got off to a good start,” side-armer Steve Cishek said. “That’s a confidence-builder right out of the gate. For me, I always like to get that first one out of the way, and it seems like everyone else is the same way in here. Once we were able to do that in Miami, now we just rely on our ability. Our bullpen is really deep and any of us can pitch at any point in the game. We’re all pretty much locked in and feeding off each other right now. It’s been fun.” The Cubs are doing this with a group that lacks big-name impact. There’s no Aroldis Chapman grabbing opponents' attention with triple-digit heat or an established dominant closer like Craig Kimbrel or the multi-inning, new-wave freak like Andrew Miller. But there are consistent performers like Cishek and Pedro Strop who don’t get headlines (outside of the rare moments they don't come through) but seem to get the job done year after year. “I like being under the radar,” Cishek said. “For me, it’s not a big deal as long as I’m going out there and passing the baton on to the next guy in the bullpen. My job is to go out there and keep the score the same. Hopefully the line keeps moving and we give the ball to [closer Brandon] Morrow with the lead. That’s our goal.” Brian Duensing joined the Cubs last season with a career 4.13 ERA and an extremely poor 15.4 percent strikeout rate. However, in one-plus season and 66 2/3 innings of relief with the Cubs, Duensing has a

2.57 ERA and has pushed his strikeout rate to a strong 23.6 percent. Suddenly, at the age of 35, Duensing is performing better than he ever has. So, what’s up with all the newfound swing-and-miss ability? “I really don’t know how that’s happening, to be honest,” Duensing told The Athletic. “I’m just trying to execute the pitch and I’m getting some swings and misses. I’m not digging into at all. I’m just trying to keep doing what I’m doing.” I reminded Duensing that last season he mentioned his mechanics were a little straighter toward the plate. He said perhaps that allowed him to repeat his delivery a little easier and allowed his arm to move “more freely.” He then added that he also moved where he sets himself on the rubber closer to the third-base side. “So maybe it’s a little bit of deception,” Duensing said. “I have no idea. I’m trying not to mess with it.” What Duensing is sure about is that it’s working. And the most important aspect of it all is that he is prepared and confident every time he steps on the mound. Credit for that, according to Duensing, goes to run prevention coordinator Tommy Hottovy and catching and strategy coach Mike Borzello. “Tommy and Borzy do a really good job of getting the scouting reports ready,” Duensing said. “Every time I come into the game, I go over the hitters as I’m warming up with [bullpen coach] Lester Strode so I feel like I have basically the at-bat laid out for me for the most part. I’ve just kind of been able to execute pitches to where I can go right through the scouting report and have success that way. I think when you’re informed and confident in how you want to go about a hitter, I think you’re able to focus on just executing a pitch. If you know it’s the right pitch, or you’re confident in it, then you have more conviction when you throw it. When you throw with conviction, you have better stuff, whether it actually is the right pitch or not.” Being prepared with how to attack every batter has increased the unit's confidence across the board. And according to many in the group, once a reliever goes out there, has that strong outing and builds confidence, it’s almost infectious throughout the bullpen. “That’s kind of what happens,” Morrow said. “You see the guy in front of you throw well and the next guy goes out and throws well. And then you get yourself a good inning and the next time you see somebody throw well and you’re rolling and you feel like their confidence and the confidence of the bullpen as a whole is kind of rising. Those early first-game jitters or uncertainty of how you’re going to be kind of goes away. You get locked in and compete like you normally do.” Morrow made his first appearance in the second game of the season, a 17-inning 2-1 loss to the Miami Marlins, lasting just two pitches before allowing Miguel Rojas to walk the game off with a single. Morrow didn’t get into a game again until last Saturday and worked again Sunday, collecting a pair of saves while striking out two and allowing a single over two innings. “Brandon not having pitched for a bit, I didn’t know what to expect the other day,” Maddon said. “And he was sharp, really sharp for two days in a row. They all look good.” Maddon said if this group can go out and throw strikes, he knows it will be dominant. So far, that’s proven to be the case. Justin Wilson had a sudden bout of wildness the other day when he started an inning with two quick outs, then admitted to rushing things with his delivery and walked three straight. Even with that, he's unscored upon this season and is showing an elite four-seamer with which

opponents are having trouble making any contact. Duensing has probably walked more batters than he’d like and Carl Edwards Jr. has walked two of the 20 batters he’s faced. But he’s also struck out nine of them. Maddon agreed that the whole group was feeding off of each other. And not only that, he believes some of the players like Cishek and Morrow, brought in to help alleviate the Cubs relievers' issues with throwing strikes (they posted an MLB-worst 11.2 percent walk rate last season), will rub off on others as well. “I think Morrow is a good example for CJ right now,” Maddon said. “He saw Brandon just go out and pound the zone, he just saw him, 'here we go.' And I think I saw that [Sunday] out of CJ. I think they can teach other lessons.” As a group, the Cubs relievers are walking 9.9 percent of the batters they face. It’s just nine games and 38 1/3 innings, and frankly that number isn’t all that impressive. But it’s better than last year and good for middle of the pack in the game at the moment. And as Morrow and Cishek continue to set the example, the others seem keen on following. “It kind of permeates to the next guy, just going out there and throwing strikes,” Morrow said. “You see it all the time, when guys walk guys, the next guy comes out there and walks guys too. It’s kind of a weird, contagious thing. I’m sure there’s no explanation or reason why, it just happens. It’s just the way it is. If you have a lot of strike-throwers, the guys around kind of inherit those same feelings. You see a guy attacking the zone and having success throwing strikes and being confident in the strike zone.” If there’s one pitcher in this relief group who could emerge as a headline-grabber, it’s almost certainly Edwards. Morrow has the former top-prospect pedigree and impressed onlookers with his playoff dominance and durability last October. However, the latter has been a big question for him during his career and some seem to question whether he’ll be able to stay healthy for another full season as the Cubs closer. But when Edwards is not walking batters and instead choosing to attack the zone with his high-spin-rate four-seamer and hammer curve, he is as dominant as they come. And of late, he appears to be taking the mound with an edge. He’s beaming with confidence, challenging hitters and more often than not coming out on top. Edwards has shown flashes of dominance throughout his short career, even last year, despite struggling with a 14.5 percent walk rate in the regular season. It only got worse in the postseason as he gave up six runs in 4 2/3 innings and walked six of the 22 batters he faced. But Edwards has changed his mindset since then and it’s paying off. “Don’t try to nibble,” Edwards said when asked what he learned last year. “Let those guys make contact. If they get a hit, they get a hit. If they get a home run, they get a home run. But I’ll take my chances of my defense making a play.” He won’t say it, but Edwards will also take his chances with hitters attempting to catch up to his upper-90s fastball, which he pairs nicely with his curveball. The four-seamer gets a whiff/swing rate of 32.1 percent, eighth-best for relievers in the PITCHf/x era (since 2007), comparable to Kimbrel during that same span. On Thursday, Edwards threw 16 pitches and remarkably got whiffs on nine of them, eight on the four-seamer. That’s the type of performance that will get one noticed as a premier reliever.

But right now, this group of ragtag relievers is happy to go under the radar, pushing each other with scoreless inning after scoreless inning as they help their team tally wins. They’re thriving off each other’s success and motivating themselves by being sure they’re not the one to let the team down. For a team that was expected to score runs in bunches and a rotation full of big names, it's the relievers that look like the strength of the team early on. -- The Athletic Anthony Rizzo’s back injury lands Cubs star on the disabled list By Patrick Mooney Anthony Rizzo’s seemingly annual back problem is happening early in the season and lingering longer than usual, pushing the Cubs’ All-Star first baseman onto the 10-day disabled list. The Cubs will make the official roster move before Tuesday’s rescheduled Wrigley Field opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Snow showers and a chilling forecast made Rizzo doubtful for Monday’s lineup if the shorthanded Cubs played through the elements and he apparently didn’t make enough progress to avoid a shutdown. Rizzo’s lower back flared up last week in Cincinnati, but a rainout against the Reds combined with another off-day convinced him he felt good enough to play for the start of a four-game showdown against the Milwaukee Brewers. Rizzo made it through nine innings and then sat out the next three games over the weekend at Miller Park. Given that timing, Rizzo won’t play in the next two series against the Pirates and Atlanta Braves. But he would be eligible to come off the disabled list in time for next week’s three-game test against the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field. Rizzo is a remarkably consistent producer — 31 or 32 homers across the last four years and 100-plus RBIs in each of the last three seasons — but he’s off to a slow start (3-for-28) in 2018. The Cubs can rotate Ben Zobrist, Victor Caratini and Kris Bryant at first base, but Rizzo’s Gold Glove defense will be difficult to replace, especially if this back issue persists. -- The Athletic Why Ben Zobrist is looking like a World Series MVP again By Patrick Mooney Late Friday night, Ben Zobrist sat with advance scouting coordinator Nate Halm at the bank of computers inside Miller Park’s visiting clubhouse. Kyle Schwarber hunched over a different screen, watching video with assistant hitting coach Andy Haines after an 0-for-4 game with four strikeouts. The Cubs had just absorbed a walk-off loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, an upstart division rival that Kris Bryant called “a little annoying” and would provoke Willson Contreras to yell “Fuck you!” across the field that weekend. At one point, Zobrist got up from his chair and started demonstrating his left-handed swing to Halm. Better known as “Nate the Video Guy,” Halm almost won Dale Sveum’s 2013 spring training bunting tournament and got credit for the replay challenge during last year’s epic Game 5 victory over the

Washington Nationals, seeing the angle on the pickoff play where Jose Lobaton’s right foot slipped off first base. Zobrist is a self-made player, naturally curious with the kind of communication skills that could make him a great TV analyst someday. This is the sense of energy and collaboration that Zobrist talked about in Arizona, where he felt like the Cubs had the best-run camp of his big-league career, which began with the 2006 Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Snow showers postponed the 103rd Wrigley Field opener until Tuesday afternoon, but the Cubs can already feel a different level of engagement, a sense of momentum and the confidence that their 2016 World Series MVP is back. “Absolutely, they’re listening to us,” Zobrist said. “We’re trying to communicate more of what we’re experiencing out there so that they can help make those decisions for us. Not for us — but with us — when we’re trying to look at a pitcher and [saying]: ‘What does he got vs. what do you do?’ “That’s where I’m trying to be more detailed ahead of the game and after the game with: ‘What was I thinking? What did I do? What about it did I like? What did I not like?’ I’m bouncing that stuff off of him so that he can hear those thoughts come out. I journal some of that, too, on my own, so you’re processing it and not just like passing over it. “I think that’s how you learn quicker. You got to process those moments.” As someone who grew up in downstate Illinois and didn’t get drafted out of Eureka High School — and didn’t record 500 at-bats until his age-28 season — Zobrist is serious about his craft without being consumed by baseball. His wife, Julianna, a Christian pop singer, will handle the “God Bless America” part of Tuesday’s pageantry. The Pittsburgh Pirates will have to account for Zobrist, who did not start on Opening Day, but has since gone 9-for-25 (.360) with four walks and a home run off Milwaukee’s Chase Anderson, emerging as a viable leadoff solution and quieting the talk about him becoming an over-the-hill bench player. “At the plate, it’s all about rhythm and the feel,” Zobrist said, crediting new hitting coach Chili Davis, an All-Star switch-hitter during his 19-year big-league career, as well as Halm and Haines. “Those three guys have really helped me try to nail some things down early on. “As a switch-hitter, it’s so hard to find that feel early on, because you’re two different hitters, two different people, on different sides of the plate and you have to switch on and off. Sometimes, it takes a little longer to get into that. I’m really excited about where I’m at right now. “You just try to keep it going as long as you can. You know you’re going to have some downs and times where you’re not feeling great. But you try and stay on top of it. We got other guys that are going to get hot very quickly and carry the ballclub. You just ride the guys that are feeling good.” Zobrist constantly felt like he was playing catch-up last year, from another World Series hangover to nagging back stiffness to the left wrist injury he suffered on a check swing in late May at Dodger Stadium. “Habits get created when you have injuries,” Zobrist said. “You have to break [that]. Sometimes in the moment, you’re just trying to make adjustments and do what you can. Sometimes it works out and

sometimes it doesn’t. For our whole team last year, it was trying to make an adjustment from the start: ‘How do we get things going?’” Zobrist’s on-base percentage dropped 68 points from the year before while his OPS plunged to .693, his lowest mark since establishing himself as a big-league player in 2008. He didn’t show the same consistent patience and bat speed that sparked such a frenzy at the 2015 Nashville winter meetings near his Tennessee home and led the Cubs to extend a four-year, $56 million offer that wasn’t even the highest bid, expecting him to be an example for all their young hitters. “That’s about timing,” Zobrist said. “If I see the ball well, which I usually do, [with] my swing, when I say ‘go,’ it’s there at the front of the zone where it needs to be. Then I’m not going to chase very many pitches. That’s just the kind of hitter I am. Last year, when I said ‘go’ to my swing, I couldn’t. “My wrist wouldn’t allow me to get certain places in the zone, which made me have to start my swing earlier. I chased more pitches. That’s really what it comes down to: You got to be able to see the ball and react and know that your bat’s going to be where you want it to be.” In what sounded like a parody of the best-shape-of-his-life stories that annually pop up during spring training, Zobrist reported to camp, said he felt great and then sat out the first formal full-squad workout in Mesa. Trying to rest his back, the Cubs didn’t put Zobrist into a Cactus League game until March 6. Zobrist, who will turn 37 next month, had already made concessions and altered his routine. Instead of shutting down for a full month — like he did after winning the 2015 World Series with the Kansas City Royals and again during the Cubs’ victory tour — he only took 10 days off when this offseason began. The idea being at that age it’s easier to keep working and stay in shape than trying to ramp it back up again. “Physically, he looks really good to me right now,” said manager Joe Maddon, whose vision helped Zobrist first break through as an All-Star super-utility guy for the Rays. “He’s moving well. The bat’s really quick. And who works a better at-bat than he does? “He’s got his mental edge back. Two consecutive trips to the World Series as a winner — not easy to do — and then almost again last year. I think he’s been refreshed. He went home with the right kind of an attitude. “He’s really ready to rock and roll and you’re going to see a younger mental version of Zo.” As much as anyone, Zobrist knows how long the season is and why you should stay humble. But for all the great expectations surrounding these fresh-faced hitters, the Cubs’ offense might really click because of the guy with the big beard born in 1981. “I’m just hoping,” Zobrist said, “that if I continue the right things in the training room, the right things before and after the game, I’ll continue to get on that path where I feel really good. I’m just happy to stay healthy right now and be able to help the club a little bit.” -- Cubs.com Back issue likely to land Rizzo on DL By Carrie Muskat

CHICAGO -- The Cubs are expected to place Anthony Rizzo on the 10-day disabled list on Tuesday, retroactive to last Friday, to give him time to get treatment for his back, which tightened up last week. Rizzo, who has never been on the DL before, has missed the Cubs' last three games and was not in the lineup for Monday's home opener, which was postponed because of snow. If all goes well, Rizzo would be eligible to play next Monday against the Cardinals. On Sunday, Rizzo said he felt some discomfort one week ago when the Cubs were in Cincinnati, and got a break when the April 3 game was postponed because of rain. He did play Thursday in Milwaukee, but his back locked up again. Rizzo didn't want to miss Monday's home opener. "It's definitely important and I want to play [Monday], but at the same time, you've got to be smart," Rizzo said on Sunday in Milwaukee. Rizzo has missed time in the past because of his back, but usually he's only sidelined two days and the problem is in his upper back. "It tightened up, I played [Thursday] and it tightened up again on Friday," Rizzo said. "It's just one of those things where I hope to get it under control now so it's not a grind all year." -- Cubs.com Cubs' home opener rescheduled for today By Carrie Muskat and Adam Berry CHICAGO -- Carl Edwards Jr., Javier Baez, Kris Bryant and Jose Quintana got to play in the snow on Monday instead of playing for the Cubs. The players threw snowballs and slid on the slick surface at Wrigley Field before the Cubs' home opener against the Pirates was postponed. The inclement weather and tough field conditions forced the move. The two teams will play today, which was an off-day for both teams. "On the way out [to the ballpark], I had no idea if I was going to the Cubs Convention or Opening Day, so I think it was the right thing to do," Chicago manager Joe Maddon said of the postponement. "I woke up and saw everything going on, and you look at the [weather] map and you look at Tuesday being an open day and a much better forecast and I thought it would be a prudent thing and we did it." Both teams will stay with the same starting pitchers, so Tyler Chatwood (0-1, 1.50 ERA) will go for the Cubs and Ivan Nova (0-1, 6.10 ERA) for the Pirates. Chatwood went out to play catch in the snow after the game was called. The Pirates now have games scheduled for 13 straight days, with 26 games scheduled for their next 27 days, but they are no strangers to the frigid weather they encountered Monday morning. The game-time temperature was 40 degrees or lower for seven of the Bucs' first nine games this season. It was 35 degrees when Jameson Taillon threw out the first pitch of his one-hit shutout against the Reds on Sunday in Pittsburgh.

"We've been able to have success with what we've been doing," starter Trevor Williams said on Friday. He paused, looking forward to the Pirates' next series this coming weekend. "I think all of us are ready to get to Miami." The Pirates' average game-time temperature this season has been 39.6 degrees, but manager Clint Hurdle doesn't expect his team's recent experience in the freezing cold will give them any sort of advantage over the Cubs. "I don't think so, no," Hurdle said. "They've played in cold weather before." The Cubs were just happy to be back at Wrigley. They are the only Major League team to not play a home game this season. "Opening Day is always very special, but we've already played nine or 10 games and we're into the season already," Maddon said. "When you open at home, it's always different. You'd rather go out there with just your uniform on as opposed to five layers of clothing, too. I think [Tuesday] I'll be able to go out there with just my jersey on and not have to put my hoodie on." Edwards, who is from South Carolina, doesn't see snow very often, but he considered it a good sign. "In '16 it happened when I was with [Triple-A] Iowa," Edwards said. "It snowed, hailed, everything [for the home opener]. I'm using my superstitions to think '18 will be like '16." In case you weren't aware, Edwards did join the Cubs in a regular role in 2016, and the team won the World Series. Maddon wasn't surprised some of the players were frolicking in the snow. "If you've never seen snow before, you're going to get out there and do something," Maddon said. "If you're from Hazleton [Pa.], I really don't need to see it." Monday's game was scheduled to begin at 1:20 p.m. CT, and the Cubs initially pushed the first pitch back to 2:20 p.m. CT. Just after 11 a.m. CT, as the Wrigley Field grounds crew cleared off the tarp with shovels and snow blowers, the Cubs announced the postponement. The gates at Wrigley will open at approximately 11:20 a.m. CT on Tuesday and the Opening Day ceremony will begin around 12:45 p.m. Tickets for Monday's postponed game will be honored for Tuesday's makeup game. No ticket exchange is necessary. "I think we were expecting [a postponement]," Cubs closer Brandon Morrow said. "I thought we were still going to get the game in. I thought [the snow] was supposed to stop around 11, noon, and I know how quickly they can clear a field with some equipment. I was hoping we'd get in. But that's why we have [Tuesday] off [on the schedule]." -- Cubs.com Szczur sends Ricketts gift for Wrigley Suite By Carrie Muskat

CHICAGO -- Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts has some new artwork for his suite at Wrigley Field, thanks to outfielder Matt Szczur. Szczur, who was on the Cubs' 2016 World Series championship team and now is a member of the Padres, had painted a photo of the players celebrating after the final out of the Fall Classic. The artwork was auctioned off at a Cubs fundraising event, and Ricketts had hoped to buy it at that time. "I said, 'Great, I'll get that there and put it in my suite,'" Ricketts said Monday. "One of our best fans bought it, so I missed my opportunity. Matt was kind enough to do a second one for me. It'll make its way over to the suite as soon as the snow stops." Szczur did another painting of the Cubs' players celebrating after the final out just for Ricketts, and Szczur had the players autograph it during Spring Training. "He's a special guy all the way around," Ricketts said. "He's just a really good young man. It's the iconic shot. It's really cool, and something I'll treasure forever." Ricketts appreciated the gift, and said he'll make a donation to one of Szczur's charitable efforts in return. -- Cubs.com Maddon won't rush to judgement with Happ By Carrie Muskat CHICAGO -- Last year, the Cubs began the season with Kyle Schwarber in the leadoff spot. On June 21, when he was batting .171, Schwarber was sent to Triple-A Iowa for a few weeks. This season, Ian Happ's slow start is prompting questions about how long manager Joe Maddon will keep him in the leadoff spot. "I just want to show some confidence in him right now," Maddon said Monday of Happ, who was batting .179 in seven games so far. "What I think is going on is a little abnormal in a sense. We've seen him swing and miss in the past. He's a very streaky guy. I think once he gets a feel for it, you'll start seeing the ball get hit like he can -- he hits the ball really hard. I want to stay with that for now." Schwarber did not return to the leadoff spot when he came back last July 6. Happ had an impressive Spring Training and won the job. "You've got to give a guy a chance and you can't jump to conclusions too quickly," Maddon said. "We'll continue to work through it. I know him and [hitting coach Chili Davis] are working on things. He got a pretty big hit the other day [on Saturday]. I'm seeing micro things that are getting better. I like when he's getting jammed, I like when he's hitting the other way left-handed. I think those are all good signs." Happ batted .253 in 115 games last season, hitting 24 home runs, 17 doubles and driving in 68 runs. This year, he smacked the first pitch of the Major League season for a home run, but has just four hits and 17 strikeouts since then.

"He had a great camp, swung the bat really well," Maddon said. "He's quite a talent and he's going to be fine. We just have to play through it. When you start making rash decisions too early, I think you can destroy confidence, which I don't want to do." • The Cubs' bullpen leads the Major Leagues with a 0.94 ERA, giving up four earned runs over 38 1/3 innings so far this season. Closer Brandon Morrow isn't surprised. "We have a lot of guys with good stuff," Morrow said. "When we continue to be in the strike zone like we have been, you see the results. Guys are getting quick outs and strikeouts when they need to and limiting the free passes, for the most part. We've been going in with a lot of confidence and starting the season on the right foot." Maddon can see the young players feeding off each other as well. "I think Morrow is a good example for [Carl Edwards Jr.] right now," Maddon said. "He saw Brandon go and just pound the zone, and I think I saw that [Sunday] out of C.J. They can teach each other lessons." It helps that the Cubs' relievers offer different looks, from Edwards' fastball to Steve Cishek's sidearm delivery. "No. 1, it's the quality of the pitches we make, but [No. 2], it definitely helps when you have different looks to throw at guys," Morrow said. • Speaking of Morrow, has he been working on his dance moves for the bullpen? When a Cubs player hits a home run at Wrigley Field, the relievers have been known to do a little celebratory dancing. "I won't be dancing," Morrow said. Wade Davis, the Cubs' closer last season, didn't dance either. The main reason is that by the time the closer gets to the bullpen, it's usually late in the game. "By the time we get down there, that's kind of the beginning when we see guys stretching and locking it in," Morrow said. The right-hander also has yet to pick the music for when he enters the game at Wrigley Field. "I've been going back and forth," Morrow said. "It's not that big a deal. I might switch them up. It depends on how I'm feeling." • Ben Zobrist was scheduled to start on Monday at first base in place of Anthony Rizzo, who has been bothered by stiffness in his lower back. Zobrist did work out at first base over the weekend in Milwaukee with infield coach Brian Butterfield. The last time he started at first base was Sept. 23, 2010, against the Yankees. Rizzo was still receiving treatment for his back and his status was day to day. -- ESPNChicago.com Anthony Rizzo (back) to miss fourth straight game By Jesse Rogers

CHICAGO -- Considering the cold conditions at Wrigley Field, it's not a surprise that Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo will miss his fourth straight game Monday with lower back tightness. Rizzo, 28, missed the final three games of the Cubs series in Milwaukee this past weekend after experiencing tightness going back to last Monday in Cincinnati. He played through the pain on Thursday before missing the next three games. "It locked up worse than it has in the past," Rizzo said Sunday. "(Getting) treatment every day. It feels better. Don't want to re-aggravate it." Rizzo has experienced this sort of ailment in the past but it's never been serious. Temperatures in the 30's on Monday are ripe for aggravating an injury, so the Cubs are playing it safe. The team is off Tuesday, giving Rizzo another day to heal up. "Every time it's a little different but generally it's the same thing," Rizzo said. "This is something that just grabbed. It's usually upper (back); this is lower." Manager Joe Maddon indicated he wants Rizzo to back off game-day workouts, saying players take too many swings and ground balls throughout the season. Rizzo is off to a slow start, with just three hits in 28 at-bats. The Cubs host the Pittsburgh Pirates in their home opener on Monday. -- NBC Sports Chicago Glanville: My memories of Opening Day at Wrigley Field By Doug Glanville When I was called up for the first time to the Chicago Cubs on June 9, 1996, it would be the second time I would see Wrigley Field. The first was when I hurt my shoulder in 1991 and came up for some medical tests. But this was different. Today is the Cubs home opener and I only had one home opener at Wrigley Field. We played the Florida Marlins on a frigid April day and I recall their veteran infielder Jeff Conine wearing so many layers that he looked like a teal snowman. I dreamed of laying down a bunt so I could see the eight layers of clothing explode like a blowfish from too much pressure. But as Wrigley marked the territory for a great way to start a season, it stayed with me because of it being the site of my major league debut. The day when dream kisses reality and that dream is not just yours but all the people who invested in your future. My father came to the United States in 1956 from Trinidad and Tobago and he could not imagine that his children could conquer an American pastime to reach such heights. My Mom grew up in a segregated South, seeing professional sports as a risk to the stability of academic pursuits. But they conceded on days like my debut, that this journey was well worth it. Their sacrifices allowed me to dream big. To push possibility knowing that the road to the big leagues is not linear like an organization chart of minor league affiliates. It is full of weaving bus rides and demotions, released roommates and game winning hits in front of only 500 fans. It is nagging injuries and dizzy bat contests, overthrown cutoff men, and lessons from coaches who you watched as a child.

The determination to endure is not on the back of your baseball card, nor is the good fortune to be healthy or to catch a break. Yet the invisible guide of family, friends, coaches, and even detractors line the highway that goes through that big league destination. A place that is a moving target, influenced by time, history, and opportunity. I found myself thankful that day. To see my name in a lineup full of players I imitated in my driveway in all day Wiffle Ball sessions with my brother. Grace, Sandberg (Ryno hit a home run), Sosa. Surreal, unreal, but real. Then there is Wrigley. Hallowed baseball ground that was my new home office, every day waking up in a cold sweat afraid of missing those 9:30 a.m. report times on day games. It may not be anyone’s major league debut this coming Opener for 2018 but it is a fresh start no matter if you are Jon Lester with rings and experience or Ian Happ, who is just getting started. And that start is more than today. It is yesterday and all that it took to be present. It is tomorrow and all that could be ahead of you. I did not get a hit that debut, maybe fitting because although a few of my friends made it to Wrigley, the next game was in Philadelphia where my parents would see my first hit against the favorite team from my childhood. But I was a Cub that day and my Phillies history would have to go on pause. And now 22 years later, I found the surprise gift that some days thankfully last a lifetime. Open to never close. -- NBC Sports Chicago The art of the walk-up song: How Cubs choose their music By Tony Andracki Kyle Hendricks may not show emotion on the mound, but smiles come easily when he's not between the foul lines. Especially when he's talking about his walk-up song. The always-self-aware Hendricks understands the running joke about his expressionless demeanor and comes out to Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" when pitching or hitting at Wrigley Field. He'll use the same song again in 2018. "No reason to change it now," he said, smirking. "Gotta give the people what they want." Walk-up songs have become a huge deal at the corner of Clark and Addison in recent years. Back before the video boards were installed in the 2015 season, players didn't have the luxury of choosing their own music and injecting some of their personality into the middle of the game experience at Wrigley Field. 2018 will be the fourth year in which players have walk-up songs, meaning it's the only life players like Kris Bryant and Addison Russell have ever known at the corner of Clark and Addison.

"It's just something that I like to hear whenever I'm walking up to the plate," Russell said. "It gets me goin'. You're able to express yourself a little bit in your music choice and what you like to put out there for everyone to hear. "It's definitely a fun process for selecting the song that you want out there." Music and dancing are everywhere around Wrigley Field, from bullpen dancing after home runs to the Seventh Inning Stretch to organist Gary Pressy to the walk-up songs that are now a staple at "The Friendly Confines." Walk-up songs are also a great way for players to endear themselves to fans, like Hendricks having fun with "Sweet Emotion" or Anthony Rizzo playing Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez/Kygo ("It ain't me") last year. David Ross — aka "Grandpa Rossy" — used "Forever Young" as his walk-up song when he played and now Cubs fans associate the Alphaville track with him. Starlin Castro's walk-up song at Wrigley became an entire chill-inducing experience with 42,000 people clapping and stomping along with the rhythm of "Ando En La Versace": Ben Zobrist uses the opportunity to promote his wife's music, using Julianna Zobrist's rendition of "Benny and the Jets" the last couple years. Julianna is signing the National Anthem before Sunday's game and her husband acknowledged he would be using more of her music as his walk-up songs in 2018...though may throw a curveball in there, too. Rizzo changes it up every at-bat. Kyle Schwarber may do the same thing this year, though he said he plans on sticking with "Thuggish Ruggish Bone" as one of the songs. The Cubs slugger has used the Bone Thugs-n-Harmony song as part of his lineup since making his big-league debut in 2015, honoring the hip hop group that hails from his home state of Ohio. The funny part about the song, however, is it was released in 1994, the year after Schwarber was born. Russell may mix it up, too, using different songs for different at-bats or rotation through a cycle over the course of the season. "It's a song that I like, a song I can relate to, something that gets me going," Russell said. "I think I'm gonna have a few this year. I think I might repeat one, but at a different point in the song. "For the most part, it's just all about what I dig, what's kinda hot at the time. Just something to get me pumped up as I get into the box." The song choice can be a strong motivational factor for each player. Music can trigger a bunch of different emotions and thoughts for different people and thus a walk-up song can serve as a mental trigger for professional athletes. A well-selected song can also inject feelings of relaxation and mental clarity into the situation, as is the case with veteran reliever Steve Cishek, who's about to make his Cubs Wrigley Field debut this week. "I always choose a song that fires me up and that I've listened to that gets my blood pumping a bit," Cishek said. "This year, I kinda went a different route because I know I'm gonna be fired up going into Wrigley.

"I tried to pick a little bit of a slower song to calm down a little. Who knows? I might change it through the season if I need some extra jice. But whatever gets the adrenaline pumping. Some songs just tend to do that for me." Some players don't really give it much thought ahead of time, like reliever Justin Wilson, who hadn't yet decided on a walk-up/out song after the first week of play. Newcomer Tyler Chatwood will be the first Cub of the 2018 season to have his walk-up/out song played at Wrigley Field when he takes the ball to start the first inning of the home opener Monday (weather permitting). As each Cubs player's walk-up song is played throughout the homestand, we'll keep a running list: Albert Almora Jr. - Javier Baez - Kris Bryant - Eddie Butler - Victor Caratini - Tyler Chatwood - Steve Cishek - Willson Contreras - Yu Darvish - Brian Duensing - Carl Edwards Jr. - Ian Happ - Kyle Hendricks - Jason Heyward - Tommy La Stella - Jon Lester - Mike Montgomery - Brandon Morrow - Jose Quintana - Anthony Rizzo - Addison Russell - Kyle Schwarber - Pedro Strop - Justin Wilson - Ben Zobrist - -- NBC Sports Chicago The best moments in the history of Cubs home openers By Staff Running down the best home-opener moments in Cubs franchise history: 2017 - (April 10, 2017 vs. LAD) World Series Banner Night - Anthony Rizzo walkoff single in bottom of the 9th off Kenley Jansen. Jon Jay scored winning run. First Cubs walkoff win in Home Opener since 2000. Cubs win 3-2.

2016 - (April 11, 2016 vs. CIN) Addison Russell go-ahead 3-run HR in bottom of 8th of Jumbo Diaz. Cubs win 5-3. 2000 - (April 10, 2000 vs. ATL) Jeff Reed walk-off single in 9th off Luis Rivera. Damon Buford scores. Shane Andrews hit a 3-run HR off Kerry Ligtenberg 3 batters previous. Cubs had been shut out until the 9th inning. Cubs win 4-3. 1996 - (April 1, 1996 vs. SD) Mark Grace walk-off single in 10th off future Hall-of-Famer Trevor Hoffman. Rey Sanchez scores. Cubs win 5-4. 1994 - (April 4, 1994 vs. NYM) Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes hits 3 HR off Dwight Gooden and the Mets. Finished 4-for-4 at the plate. Rhodes was on pace to hit 486 home runs. He hit almost that many in Japan (464). Cubs lose 12-8. 1988 - (April 15, 1988 vs. PIT) Rick Sutcliffe pitches complete game shutout. It was the first Cubs complete game shutout win in a home opener since 1974. Andre Dawson, Shawon Dunston and Dave Martinez all homered. Cubs win 6-0. 1978 - (April 14, 1978 vs. PIT) Larry Biittner walk-off HR off Jim Bibby in 9th. But Biittner did not start the game. He replaced Bill Buckner before the 2nd inning at first base. Buckner had an injured ankle. Cubs win 5-4. 1976 - (April 13, 1976 vs. NYM) Rick Monday walk-off single with bases loaded in 9th off Skip Lockwood. Champ Summers scores. Cubs win 5-4. 1974 - (April 9, 1974 vs. PHI) Bill Bonham pitches a complete game shutout with 9 strikeouts. First Cubs complete game shutout win in home opener since 1950. Cubs win 2-0. 1973 - (April 6, 1973 vs. MON) Rick Monday walk-off BB in 9th off Mike Marshall. Glenn Beckert scores. The Cubs had not scored since the 1st, and rallied for 2 runs in the 9th. Cubs win 3-2. 1971 - (April 6, 1971 vs. STL) Billy Williams walk-off HR off Hall-of-Famer Bob Gibson in 10th. Cubs win 2-1. 1969 - (April 8, 1969 vs. PHI) Willie Smith walk-off HR in 11th off Barry Lersch. The Phillies had scored in the top of the 11th to take a 6-5 lead. Randy Hundley singled with 1 out before Smith hit the 2-run homer. Ernie Banks also hit 2 HR and drove in 5 runs. Cubs win 7-6. 1965 - (April 12, 1965 vs. STL) Cubs and Cardinals play to 10-10 tie after 11 innings. The game was called for darkness. Under the rules of the time the game had to be made up in its entirety later -- it was -- but since the game had gone more than five innings, all the stats counted. The Cubs actually played in 164 games in 1965. 1961 - (April 14, 1961 vs. MIL) Sammy Taylor walk-off HR off Bob Buhl. First of back-to-back walk-off wins to start the home slate for the Cubs. Cubs win 3-2. 1956 - (April 20, 1956 vs. CIN) Ernie Banks hits first "home opener" HR of his career. 1st inning off Art Fowler. Cubs win 12-1.

1952 - (April 18, 1952 vs. STL) Bill Serena walkoff double. Joe Hatten and Roy Smalley score. Cubs entered the 9th trailing 4-1, but rallied to score 4 runs in the inning. Cubs win 5-4. 1950 - (April 21, 1950 vs. STL) Bob Rush pitches complete game shutout. Cubs win 2-0. 1945 - (April 17, 1945 vs. STL) Don Johnson walk-off single in 9th. Bill Nicholson scores. Cubs win 3-2. 1940 - (April 19, 1940 vs. STL) Larry French complete game shutout. Cubs win 5-0. 1933 - (April 12, 1933 vs. STL) Lon Warneke complete game shutout. Cubs win 3-0. 1927 - (April 12, 1927 vs. STL) Earl Webb hits 2 HR in home opener. 67 years before Tuffy Rhodes would best the feat. The first HR was off Grover Cleveland Alexander, who had joined the Cardinals in 1926 after spending 8+ season with the Cubs. Cubs win 10-1. 1925 - (April 14, 1925 vs. PIT) Battery combination of Grover Cleveland Alexander and Gabby Hartnett both homer. Cubs win 8-2. 1920 - (April 22, 1920 vs. CIN) Turner Barber walk-off hit in 11th. Cubs win 4-3. 1918 - (April 24, 1918 vs. STL) Hippo Vaughn complete game shutout. Cubs win 2-0. 1916 - (April 20. 1916 vs. CIN) Vic Saier walk-off hit in 11th. Cubs win 7-6. 1912 - (April 20, 1912 vs, CIN) Joe Tinker walk-off hit in 10th. Cubs win 5-4. 1911 - (April 12, 1911 vs. STL) Cubs and Cardinals play to 3-3 tie after 11 innings. Game called due to darkness. --