Chicago Cubs: Single-A South Bend will get ‘hardcore’ on June 21

Mick Foley set to visit South Bend Cubs

It was announced yesterday on WNDU.com that the Chicago Cubs’ Single-A affiliate will welcome a special guest on Sunday June 21st for their Father’s Day game. WWE Hall of Fame wrestler, Mick Foley will make his return to his home state of Indiana. On that day, Foley will be throwing out the first pitch and singing the seventh-inning stretch for the hometown crowd at Four Winds Field.

More from Cubbies Crib

• Cubs should keep close eye on non-tender candidate Cody Bellinger
• Cubs starting pitching has been thriving on the North Side
• Make no mistake: the Cubs are very much about power hitters
• Cubs are giving pitcher Javier Assad a deserved shot
• Cubs: It’s time to start thinking about potential September call-ups

Foley said to WNDU.com that, “Being from Bloomington, some of you may think I’m from the wrong part of Indiana but it was always special about coming back there.”

You may know Mick Foley by a different name. During his 20-year career, Foley has wrestled under the names of Jack Foley, Cactus Jack Manson, Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love.

Cactus Jack is the name that got him international attention; that and his barbed wire and hardcore matches, but it was under the name Mankind that he would go to the WWE and had his most success.

"“I used to be pretty good–I used to have a pretty good arm,” Foley explained. “It took me a while to realize that you know Mother Nature and Father Time had tag-teamed me in a way that no opponent ever has. After a while no amount of warming up is going to make up for the fact that I’m going to throw this pitch 10 feet into the dirt so I just now step forward and I loop it in and just hope for the sympathy of a kind-hearted crowd.” Mick Foley via WNDU.com"

During his wrestling career, Mick Foley is a former three-time WWE World Champion, 11-time Tag Team Champion (eight with WWE, 1 WCW, 2 ECW), the first ever WWE Hardcore Champion, and a 2013 member of the WWE Hall of Fame.

He has also written multiple books that have landed on the New York Times Best Sellers list – including his first book Have a Nice Day. He wrote that book freehand; no ghost writer, just him, many notebooks, and a pen or pencil.

When the book was released in November of 1999, it debuted No. 3 in the Non-Fiction New York Times Best Sellers list and after only five weeks of being published, the book would land the No. 1 spot. It would remain on the list for 26-weeks.

Foley does have experience with a baseball bat – well, the bat was wrapped in barbed wire and he used it in a wrestling match, but let’s not split hairs on that minor detail.

That day the South Bend Cubs will be taking on division rival the West Michigan Whitecaps.

Currently, the Whitecaps are 26-27, 2 1/2 games ahead of South Bend who sit at 23-29. West Michigan’s Mike Gerber is leading the Midwest League with a .369 batting average and is third in RBI with 34. He is currently the 30th ranked prospect of the Detroit Tigers.

South Bend’s Gleyber Torres – the No. 4 ranked prospect of the Chicago Cubs – is currently slashing .318/.397/.392, no homers, 30 RBI, and eight stolen bases, and the No. 10 prospect, Jake Stinnett. Stinnett is 1-2 with a 6.27 ERA in eight starts.

Foley will also take part in a private meet and greet and autograph session. There are a limited number of VIP tickets still available. If you wish to attend, feel free to contact the South Bend Cubs at (574) 235-9988 for availability via courtesy of WNDU.com.

Next: Chicago Cubs and Joe Maddon a Perfect Match