December 22, 2016

 CSNChicago.com, Behind The Scenes At Wrigley: A Giant Comeback Launched A New Generation Of Cubs http://www.csnchicago.com/chicago-cubs/behind-scenes-wrigley-giant-comeback-launched-new-generation- cubs

Tribune, In World Series moment, Wayne Messmer wore reminder of night he was shot http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-wayne-messmer-cubs-haugh-spt-1222-20161221- column.html

 Chicago Tribune, Cubs scheduled on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball five times in 2017 http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-espn-sunday-night-baseball-20161221- story.html

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CSNChicago.com Behind The Scenes At Wrigley: A Giant Comeback Launched A New Generation Of Cubs By Patrick Mooney

The Cubs dreaded the idea of facing Johnny Cueto in an elimination game, with Madison Bumgarner lurking in the bullpen and all that anxiety creeping into .

The San Francisco Giants seemingly had all the elements to turn a dream season into a nightmare – dominant pitchers, steady defenders, a lineup stacked with disciplined hitters and the deep reservoir of confidence from winning three World Series titles since 2010.

“We did not want to see Game 5,” manager Joe Maddon admitted at the winter meetings. “I thought facing Cueto in Game 5 would be the most difficult thing we had to do. I thought it was necessary that we won Game 4 in San Francisco to progress as well as we did. I was more focused on that win than anything else.”

More than 2,000 miles away from AT&T Park, Alex Suarez was a little distracted that night, sitting with his wife, Abby, at Prentice Women’s Hospital on Northwestern’s downtown medical campus, awaiting the birth of their first child.

The two first met while working for the Cubs. Suarez played at the University of Tennessee with future major- league players like Chase Headley, Luke Hochevar, Julio Borbon and J.P. Arencibia, starting out as an intern in baseball operations in 2008 and rising to be the assistant director of player development and international scouting.

Abby, who’s now the executive director of the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation, had worked on the multilayered presentation to Jon Lester during his recruiting visit before Thanksgiving 2014, when Cubs executives Theo Epstein and sold their vision of what the free agent could be on the field, in the clubhouse and in the community.

Lester, who beat lymphoma as a young pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, uses his platform to fundraise for pediatric cancer research. Even with that $155 million contract, he still had an antenna for negative feedback and how the team would be portrayed in the media, using it all as motivation.

“We got 103 wins,” Lester said, “but the Giants were supposed to beat us.”

That first-round series appeared headed toward a Lester vs. Cueto rematch as San Francisco lefty Matt Moore shut down the Cubs, allowing one earned run through eight innings and handing a 5-2 lead to a shaky bullpen that led the majors with 30 blown saves.

“We were watching the game,” Suarez recalled this week. “When things got serious in about the seventh inning, that’s when we realized: ‘Oh, wow, this baby is going to come quick.’ And then my focus shifted.

“At that point, in my head, I’m thinking: ‘OK, we got a game tomorrow. We’ll face Cueto.’ And my son probably would have been born sooner had my wife not wanted to wait in between outs to push.”

Suarez laughed over the phone: “She’ll probably kill me for saying that. But, yeah, I was focused on her. And she was watching the game.”

With his bilingual background and hybrid roles in international operations and the farm system, maybe Suarez should have seen this coming from the relentless lineup that mounted an epic comeback against five different San Francisco relievers.

Suarez helped expand the pipeline former Cubs executive Oneri Fleita started to build in Latin America. It produced the elite prospect (Gleyber Torres) surrendered in the Aroldis Chapman trade and the chest-pounding rookie catcher (Willson Contreras) who delivered the game-tying, two-run, pinch-hit single in the ninth inning.

Suarez’s father, Alex, owned the indoor hitting facility in Miami that the Cubs used as an offseason staging ground for some of their young hitters like Javier Baez, Jorge Soler and Albert Almora Jr. An under-control Baez knocked Hunter Strickland’s 99-mph fastball back up the middle for a 6-5 lead over the Giants.

When the Cubs needed a translator for the sensitive conference call in late July as a precondition for closing that blockbuster deal with the – to address a 30-game suspension under Major League Baseball’s domestic-violence policy – Suarez became a point man for chairman Tom Ricketts, Epstein, Hoyer, Chapman and agent Barry Praver.

Chapman unleashed 13 ninth-inning fastballs – all 99 mph or faster – to end the even-year myths about a Giants team that couldn’t land the superstar closer at the trade deadline. Future Hall of Fame manager Bruce Bochy told CSN Bay Area at the winter meetings: “I’m not going to lie. In all my years, that’s the toughest game I’ve ever had to bounce back (from).”

While a Giant comeback launched a new generation of Cubs, fueling optimism that ending 1908 would only be the beginning for the team that finally won the World Series.

“It had a lot to do with the fact that they had grown up in this organization,” Suarez said. “So from the day that they got here, they were exposed to the fact that: ‘Hey, it’s going to happen. And you’re going to be a part of this.’

“When Theo and Jed and Tom took over the team, as an employee, you got that sense: ‘Hey, these guys are pretty serious about winning.’ And even as an employee, you start believing it. You start saying ‘When It Happens’ and some of the mantras that we’ve used over the last five years.

“These guys mentally were (so) prepared, I think, by implementing certain things, such as a mental-skills department, and having these guys being able to visualize that moment and seeing themselves in that moment. It was almost like second nature to them.

“They were probably way less experienced (than those) ’07 and ’08 teams. (But) it was like a perfect mixture of veteran guys that knew how to handle our young guys and bring them back on track when they needed to.

“And the young guys that were confident – not arrogant, not cocky – confident in their abilities and the fact that they wanted to be a part of something special.

“Once we (got to the playoffs in 2015), you just saw a different focus. Like we’ve been there, we know what we have to do now. And I think Joe had a lot to do with that, in terms of harnessing that emotion and coming up with his own little ways of getting these guys to compete while having fun.

“(But) it all starts with the culture that was created at the top.”

Cub fans will reflect at Christmas time, remember this team and treasure their memories from the playoff whirlwind. Maybe they will think about the people who didn’t get to see it happen, or how they will someday explain to their children what it used to be like to be a Cub fan.

Daniel Jacob Suarez was born on the night of Oct. 11, 2016.

“It was crazy,” Suarez said. “We were in the labor-and-delivery room watching the game. And he was literally born while we were celebrating on the mound or (on the field).

“Obviously, this is probably the most amazing year I’ve ever been a part of professionally and personally. But if there was one word to describe it emotionally, it would be rollercoaster. No doubt.”

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Chicago Tribune In World Series moment, Wayne Messmer wore reminder of night he was shot By David Haugh

A daily reminder of the darkest moment in his life 22 years ago, the black Florsheim dress shoes just sat there in Wayne Messmer's closet, waiting to be worn during one of his proudest.

"I kiddingly say whenever I get famous, you can put those shoes in a museum,'' Messmer said.

But Messmer put them on his feet before singing the national anthem at Wrigley Field before Game 5 of the World Series, the same size 9½ Ds he was wearing April 9, 1994, when he was shot in the neck and nearly died. To Messmer, slipping the shoes on again helped a man full of gratitude feel grounded. As he announced his footwear choice to his wife, Kathleen, she winked like a woman who understood the significance of the steps her husband would take that day.

"An extremely personal moment,'' Wayne said. "Some people will find it creepy or disturbing but if you get it, you really get it. … She got it.''

She lived it.

"Those shoes remind Wayne that life is precious and that you never know when the gifts you've been given could be taken away,'' Kathleen said.

Without walking a mile in Messmer's shoes, as they say, it seems easy to understand why this was not your ordinary fashion statement. The near-death experience more than two decades ago still frames every day for Messmer, 66, best known for the baritone voice that made Anthem Singer a brand in Chicago.

Around 1:50 a.m. after a Blackhawks victory that April night, Messmer walked the 1 1/2 blocks to his car after leaving Hawkeye's Bar and Grill at 1458 W. Taylor St. When Messmer attempted to drive away, two men approached the vehicle and one, a 15-year-old, shot him in the neck from point-blank range with a 9 mm pistol.

Somehow, Messmer drove back to the bar where he stumbled out of the car and into an ambulance that rushed him to Cook County Hospital. The "Save The Children Foundation" tie they used to stop the bleeding from Messmer's neck until they reached the hospital now hangs in a frame on a wall at his home. After 10 hours of surgery and 2 1/2 days asleep, Messmer woke up feeling like the luckiest man in the city. One doctor later told Messmer he had no medical explanation why he survived, and with his voice intact.

"When you get that close to death, you get past why did it happen and ask why did I get better? What am I going to do with this gift?'' said Messmer, who also still has the leather Blackhawks jacket with a bullet hole in the collar. "It was nothing short of miraculous. So I can't possibly have a day I'm not totally grateful.''

After recovering, Messmer visited both men responsible for hurting him in jail to forgive them, a remarkable gesture.

"I discovered that the only antidote for revenge is forgiveness,'' Messmer said.

The senior executive vice-president of the Wolves AHL team found strength writing about the ordeal in a book, "The Voice of Victory,'' and giving motivational speeches. Ultimately, he persevered, as Messmer vowed to do lying in his hospital bed when he established three goals with a patched hole in his throat: Sing with his wife again, record an album of songs from his heart and sing the anthem before a Cubs World Series game.

"I needed to grab onto something,'' Messmer said of the goals. "It was a moment of tremendous anger and frustration and disappointment that everything of my fondest dreams may have been stolen … so I was not going to allow it.''

He and Kathleen sang again months after the incident and, in 2012, Messmer released "So Lucky To Be Loving You,'' with noted pianist Judy Roberts. The recording of that album marked the other occasion Messmer pulled out his special black dress shoes, which stayed neatly in his closet until hours before Game 5 of the World Series.

Managing nerves surprisingly challenged the die-hard Cubs fans who later joked he had bruises from pinching himself so much. As much as Messmer kept his composure kibitzing pre-game, the magnitude of the moment hit him when he looked at home plate and saw the World Series 2016 logo.

"I remember thinking this isn't a Tuesday afternoon in May against the Phillies,'' Messmer said. "But then I also thought, it's still the same exact thing. The act doesn't change. To me, the last thing I want to sound is cocky, but I think I earned that spot to be there after 32 years of bad baseball. So I was ready.''

In layman's terms, Messmer crushed it. Cubs manager Joe Maddon hugged Messmer after his final note and the crowd went crazy, appreciation mixed with anticipation. He had risen to the occasion just as the Cubs would later in a 3-2 victory, punctuating each syllable with the proper panache and finishing with his signature flourish "home of the brave.''

Performing the anthem at the 1991 NHL All-Star game at old days after the Gulf War began carved a niche in Chicago sports lore for Messmer, who has sung for every team in town. He ranks that 1991 career highlight up there with singing at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., where broadcasting legend Mel Allen introduced him, and at O'Hare during President George W. Bush's visit Sept. 27, 2001. He has sang the anthem publicly nearly 5,000 times, the latest stirring rendition coming Sunday in the bitter cold at Soldier Field.

But Messmer never has been prouder of the version he delivered Oct. 30 at and Addison, where the dreams of a boy and the vows of a man also intersected.

"I rarely do any flash but I threw a little fist pump at the end of (the anthem),'' Messmer said. "I loved it. Yep. I knew. That was my moment.''

It must have been the shoes.

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Chicago Tribune Cubs scheduled on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball five times in 2017 By Paul Skrbina

To the World Series victors go the spoils.

And the Cubs, who won the franchise’s first title since 1908, won’t have to wait long for another national audience.

The team is scheduled to appear on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball game of the week five times in 2017, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Opening Night, April 2 at St. Louis.

In all, the Cubs are scheduled to face their rivals three times in the game of the week. The teams also will meet June 4 and July 23, both at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs’ game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on April 30 and a matchup against the Yankees at Wrigley Field on May 7 also are on the schedule.

The Cubs could make more appearances on Sunday Night Baseball because there are four “TBD” games in June and early July, and games on Sunday nights after July 23 will be determined up to two weeks ahead of time.

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