Laura

I’m mesmerized. Every time I watch it, there’s something new and hilarious, like the first base ump’s WTF reaction after calling Javy safe at first. ALL THE HEARTS FOR JAVY

Thanks MLB for sending me a notification that Castellanos hit a HR in the bottom of the 10th. That rocked until I got the perplexing scoring updates in the top of the 11th.

I wasn’t watching the game, so grain of salt ... but Joe has always been pretty hot headed about beanballs.

I am consistently irritable about the Cubs. They are successfully irritating.

If Then The leadup had me anticipating more than that weak sauce conditional phrasing.

I really only remember ever beating the Pirates once.

NBC-Chicago posted it to FB. The link works for me even though it shows up as having been removed. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=706005496423772&id=12895086428&_rdr Link to the general FB page https://m.facebook.com/NBCSChicago/

A hit would be nice.

I wonder if they make a rookie carry around this bag for Bryant. Hopefully they at least have a roller bag. I wouldn’t want to risk injury to a rookie having to lift and carry a heavy load.

The more that comes out about this, I think the better that MLB and the Cubs are looking in how they've handled this from the get go. Well....other than Joe anyway. But from the sounds of it, they were abiding by her wishes. People counseling her that speaking out could damage her (and her child’s) financial future rings true. This applies across the board but can be especially perfidious in pro sports, particularly in MLB, IMO, which employs many foreign nationals whose partners are also often not US citizens. In other words: women in the same situation as Melissa face tremendous barriers in reporting any abuse, including potentially losing rights to stay in the US and potentially having any settlements in terms of child support (or spousal support, if applicable) be non enforceable. Plus they can be blamed by everyone for ruining so-and-so’s career. I hope everyone involved makes it through this. Even Addison; I’m not a fan anymore and I don’t want him on the Cubs, but it’s best for all involved if he makes a conscious decision to deal with his anger problems. He’s the only one who can.

Glad that Ricketts was front and center in the initial response. That’s what was needed from the owners (lead owner). All Joe needed to say is that ownership and the front office are handling this issue and defer questions to them. I don’t understand whether they have no one coordinating responses or whether Maddon is going rogue. I suspect the former and that their comms people are corporate comms only. It isn’t even PR spin. It’s HEY this is happening and it’s super likely you’ll be asked about it and your response will be all over sports media. So let’s spend a few minutes thinking about what you want to say.

Of course Theo's response is a million times better than Joe. Wtf was Joe drinking? FTFY. It’s wildly apparent to me that MLB and the Cubs need a communications consultant on gender/DV issues on both corp communications AND ops. Theo’s response is better, but not ideal.

Yeah at this point I'm regretting saying anything because it's turned into this whole thing. Again, all I said was 'Do better', which I 100% believe he could have, both because I think there were better options and because he's been a really high character guy publicly the whole time he's been with the Cubs. Ultimately, this looks like we won't be seeing Russell in a Cubs uniform the rest of the year, which is a good thing. Rizzo should do better. If he has the character I think he does, he will in the future.

Yeah that might be a little hard to do, putting him on the restricted list is probably the thing to do I was probably hoping that they could hurt Russell financially. I figured there wasn’t anything they could legally do. But I do think the Cubs should help him. And then cut him. I really don’t want him to be part of this organization. Chapman was suspended by MLB despite no charges being filed. As for help: I’d be surprised if Russell sees this as anything other than persecution. Maybe his career being threatened will motivate him. My respect for Melis for speaking out and for rebuilding her life. I hope Addison’s other partners are safe, because this will be a dark time for him. As a fan? He has to go.

We were so young and innocent then.