The Rundown: Hawk Gets Blank Cap on HOF Plaque, Shaw Playing 1B, Italy Saves Team USA

I got an email the other day about my 25th college reunion later this year, a number that will surely surprise those who labor under the notion that I’m some kid living at home. Admittedly, I don’t always or even often act my age. The older I get, the more I find myself comparing what things were like when I was younger to how they are for my kids now.

Like how my son’s National Honor Society induction class of 190 kids was nearly twice the size of my entire graduating class in high school. Or how my daughter’s college costs, even with a 50% scholarship, are more than double what mine would have been all-in. I played tennis on courts that looked like they sat at the epicenter of the world’s most concentrated earthquake, but my kids’ high school has brand new courts after the old ones were razed as part of an ongoing $200 million expansion and renovation project.

The baseball field, however, remains natural grass. While I much prefer that from a fidelity standpoint — some of the turf fields produce highly unnatural skips and bounces — it’s not great for Midwest weather in the spring. All of the varsity fields among the schools in our conference are grass, which I understand is the result of a handshake agreement. But at least two have turf JV fields, and another has access to the massive Grand Park Sports Campus nearby.

I have to imagine the shift to turf will come soon, especially if doing so provides the chance to host postseason play. There’s really no perfect solution, but you just hope they end up doing what makes the most sense. That is the case for Andre Dawson, one of the players I grew up idolizing during his Cubs tenure. Perhaps no other player had such an impact in what was a relatively short time, winning the MVP in 1987 after presenting the Cubs with a blank contract and letting them make the terms.

One of the biggest reasons behind Dawson’s decision to join the Cubs was Wrigley’s natural playing surface. More than a decade of playing on what was effectively a parking lot covered by a layer of green plastic in Montreal had taken a toll on his knees, so he needed a change. Being in Chicago not only prolonged his career, but also launched his popularity to new heights.

That’s why Dawson was disappointed when the Hall of Fame chose to put an Expos logo on his bronze plaque when he was inducted in 2010. That decision was made because he had spent more time with them than with subsequent teams, and to preserve the legacy of a team that no longer existed in that form. It never sat well with Dawson, who began petitioning the Hall three years ago to make the change.

They recently relented, and a unanimous vote by the Hall’s Board of Directors granted Dawson’s request to recast his plaque. However, they didn’t fully comply with his wishes. The Hall began offering the option of a blank cap in 2014 as a way for those players who’d made significant contributions to more than one franchise to avoid having to choose between them. That will be the case for Dawson, who shared his happiness with the development while at Cubs camp on Wednesday.

“I always felt that I was a Cub in the Hall of Fame. I just had the ‘M’ on the cap,” Dawson told reporters. “That’s what I always related to. That’s where my heart was, even though I was six years a Cub. It means everything. It means I finally had the opportunity to provide my input.”

Shaw Plays 1B

I swear there are times it feels like Craig Counsell or someone on his staff reads this site and gets ideas. Okay, not really. But maybe. The Cubs as an organization do monitor what’s out there, though, I know that for a fact. Whether it’s with interns or AI, they’re pulling data and reporting from all over the internet. So it’s possible, though still highly unlikely, that they were snooping on CI and came across our thoughts on using Matt Shaw at first base.

Or maybe we knew something about their plans. Who can say for sure whether the chicken or the egg came first?

All we know with certainty is that Shaw, armed with Carson Kelly‘s glove, started at first for the Cubs in their wild win over the Royals on Wednesday afternoon. I was going to call it a mitt, but that might have caused some confusion with Kelly being a catcher. It only makes sense for Counsell to get Shaw some reps there, if only to create depth for both team and player.

We already know Shaw is going to play all over the field, and we also know the Cubs are without a typical backup for Michael Busch at first. With Jonathon Long expected to start at Triple-A rather than languishing on the bench in Chicago, going with one or more players who are already on the roster is the best possible solution. Shaw has proven he can play plus defense at a new position, so might as well try him at the other corner to see how it works.

“Definitely, I want to get as many at-bats as I possibly can,” Shaw said after the game. “If that means playing a lot of different positions, then I think it kind of just is what it is. If I can continue to get better at those positions, then I think I’ll be in a good place to, No. 1, get a lot of at-bats, and No. 2, give guys days off if they need it to keep our team healthy going into October.”

If Counsell indeed gives Busch more leash against lefties, there will be less of a need for a short-side platoon option behind him. Even if he gets more “protection” in those situations, some combination of Shaw and Miguel Amaya should be more than adequate. Any potential for either or both to be a defensive liability will be mitigated by both the position and the limited exposure, so that won’t be an issue.

It’s also possible that Shaw won’t play there at all once the games begin to matter, but we know the Cubs could use him there in a pinch.

Italy Puts US into Bracket Play

Team USA manager Mark DeRosa‘s misunderstanding about his team’s safety and his subsequent decision to rest several starters against Italy were major topics of discussion prior to the final game of Pool B. All the drama was for naught as Italy went on to a 9-1 win behind three homers from Vinnie Pasquantino and five shutout innings from Aaron Nola, so now DeRosa has to prep his team for a Friday night fight with Canada.

Has anyone else found it funny that the broadcasters keep talking about Italy’s success in the WBC thus far as though it’s a function of baseball’s surge in popularity there? Correlation is not causation, and that’s particularly true when you see that these guys are Italian in name only. Sure, there’s ancestral heritage, but Pasquantino didn’t hit homers just because manager Francisco Cervelli put 15,000 miles on his van driving from Tuscany to the Amalfi Coast proselytizing the game.

I don’t want to detract from baseball’s growth in Italy, which really is an awesome story. In fact, I would love nothing more than to attend a baseball game there the next time I visit. But let’s at least be honest about it.

More News and Notes

• Brewers righty Quinn Priester should start the season on the IL due to wrist soreness for which he recently sought an opinion from a specialist. That could be a big blow for a Brewers team that has several question marks in the rotation.
• Tarik Skubal has drawn a lot of “unfair” criticism for his decision to pitch only one game for Team USA, even though he tried to work out a way to stay after making his start. A lot of that comes from jingoistic morons online and shouldn’t be taken seriously, but it’s also hardly out of line with what comes directly from our national leaders these days.
• There’s also been more objective criticism of how DeRosa lined up his starters, though a lot of that is out of his hands. These guys are still beholden to their teams and they’re ramping for the season, so you can’t just throw Paul Skenes on two days’ rest or have him sit for over a week just for the sake of a matchup.
• That said, Team USA could really use more expertise when it comes to strategizing for maximum efficiency in pool and bracket play. As such, I’m volunteering myself as an assistant coach for the 2029 WBC. My years of coaching and observing travel tournaments have made me adept at determining all possible tiebreak scenarios, and I can advise on how to best deploy pitchers to ensure a strong run come tourney time.
• Matthew Boyd will not be among DeRosa’s options, as he is not in the mix to get enough innings now that they’re in single-elimination play. Per Jon Heyman, Boyd is expected to return to Cubs camp in order to stay stretched out for the season. Clay Holmes may return to the Mets for the same reason, so Joe Ryan may fill one of those spots.
• Reliever Ryan Yarbrough is heading back to Yankees camp, but Team USA will add relievers Will Vest, Tyler Rogers, and Tim Hill as fill-ins for bracket play.
• Since there’s not much else going on worth covering, I figured I’d share with you some of the podcasts in my regular rotation. Though I’ve never been a big Bill Simmons fan, I love The Rewatchables; my goal is to get famous enough to pod on The ‘Burbs. I never miss an episode of The Kingcast or The Spiel, each of which covers the various works of famous dudes named Stephen. Dan Bernstein Unfiltered and 60 Songs That Explain the 90s are also staples. As far as baseball, I like the Elite Baseball Development Podcast and the Driveline Academy Youth Baseball Podcast.
• The latter is hosted by Deven Morgan, Driveline Academy found and all-around good dude. Odd that I’d enjoy a pod about youth/prep baseball run by a guy who is nearly my same age and who was an English major who has kids the same ages as mine. On that front, I would like to congratulate Danny Morgan, Deven’s son, on being bumped up to No. 23 on PBR’s rankings of the class of 2027 in Washington. Kid’s got a bright future in the game.

Trailer Time

It’s only fitting that we include a trailer for The Hawk here. Even though it figures to be highly formulaic and potentially just a version of Ricky Bobby on the golf course, I’m hoping Will Ferrell still has some juice. This series tells the tale of Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins, a former No. 1 golfer who’s trying to recapture his magic 20-some years later. There’s also an ex-wife and a prodigy involved, which makes it sound an awful lot like Stick on Apple TV.

The parallels don’t end there, as Luke Wilson is in Hawk while his brother stars in Stick. This is like when Armageddon and Deep Impact came out around the same time.