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Bear cub Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to view entire gallery:
“Cubs Bring Bear Cubs to Spring Training!”
And no…I’m not talking about the photo below of Charlie Grimm feeding a bear cub from 1932…I’m talking about yesterday. What’s the old saying…”There’s nothing new under the sun.” At least not when it comes to gimmicks to get the Cubs into the World Series!
The Chicago papers today are full of stories about the Cubs bringing “real cubs” to their camp in Mesa, Arizona. According to the story, first baseman Anthony Rizzo quickly developed a bond with them – at least until one of them peed on him! That’ll teach Rizzo a lesson in handling wild animals. Hey Anthony…Guess what?…Baby bear cubs aren’t house-broken! Haha!
Although the story didn’t come right out and say it, it sounds to me like another of Joe Maddon’s wacky schemes, on a par with his bringing a magician into the Cubs’ clubhouse last season “to keep the team loose.” Joe may be a bit unorthodox, but with the Cubs winning 97 games last year – which absolutely no one expected – you can’t deny that his crazy ideas somehow seem to work!Hey Joe…if it’ll help the Cubs get to the World Series, I say bring ‘em to every game. I don’t even care if you build a zoo in the new clubhouse!
Here’s a few words from the article: “Handlers from Bearizona, a 39 acre wildlife park near Flagstaff brought two black bear cubs (ages 10 to 12 weeks) to the Cubs’ Sloan Park spring training facility. ‘It’s very cool,’ said manager Joe Maddon, ‘Very cool.’ The baseball Cubs also have been assigned the job of naming the males cubs. ‘There’s a lot of pressure there,’ a smiling Maddon said. ‘My thought was to hopefully involve the fans somehow.’
So what does this have to do with Old-Time Baseball Photos, you ask? Well, quite a lot actually. There’s nothing new here. The Cubs have tried this gimmick before, actually more than once. Long time readers of this page may remember some of my posts from 2014, when I featured the 1908 Cubs with their big bear mascot…or perhaps fun-loving Cub manager Charlie Grimm happy to oblige when asked to feed a bear cub in 1932.
The good news is that whenever the Cubs have attempted stunts with bears and cubs, they end up winning the pennant. As a matter of fact, the 1908 photo with the big bear is from the last year the Cubs won the World Series!
So is Joe Maddon on to something? Is he even aware of the Cubs’ past success with denizens of the forests? I tend to doubt it…but let’s hope the results this year are the same as in 1908 and 1932!
-Gary Livacari
Photos: from Chicago Sun-Times, March 26, 2016; all others from public domain.
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