Chicago Cubs: Joe Maddon wishes more players had Buds with buds

After a season in which the Chicago Cubs played dreadfully on the road, skipper Joe Maddon quipped that perhaps the culprit was a lack of beer and social engagement before and after games.

Beer and baseball go together like lamb and tuna fish. Or maybe spaghetti and meatballs if you prefer. If you’re at the game or watching from home, chances are you’re cracking open a cold one. For Chicago Cubs fans, It might be an Old Style or a Bud, or it could be the latest from Goose Island or Dogfish Head.

Funny thing is, it’s not just fans who enjoy their brewskies – players have always been tied to frothy beverages just as much as they have to throwing bbs or hitting bombs. Whether it’s Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, or the infamous rally beers from Jon Lester, John Lackey and Josh Beckett in the 2011 Boston Red Sox clubhouse (pssst- they won a ring two years following that fiasco).

At the beginning of the 2019 season, one of the points of emphasis on the now pointless-in-hindsight manifesto agreed upon by Cubs players, coaches, and front office personnel had to do with beer consumption  (I even wrote a story about it).

Fast food and beer is hard to stay away from when you’re on the road and you’re with your buddies.  Apparently though, for the 2019 Iteration of the Cubs, that’s not necessarily true. And, while it would seem to be an affront to the bogus didnt-work-manifesto, lame duck skipper Joe Maddon recently intimated that some of the road issues this year might be the lack of camaraderie over cold ones.

Chicago Cubs: Here’s to hangin’ with the boys

Guys hanging out, telling stories, joking around and belching up the tasty aroma of a nice kolsh or lager every once in a while after games could do a lot for team morale and chemistry. In essence, it would create a world of change in something you can quantify (wins) but not qualify (chemistry).

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And that didn’t happen a lot this past season for whatever reason according to Maddon. Whether it’s guys getting older, getting married, staying away from potential social media snafus or eschewing drinks and fast food as ordered, it just didn’t happen.

This brings to mind two old sayings we’ve all heard before: “everything in moderation” and “be careful what you wish for.” Currently, the Cubs are moderating too well, and being too careful. Perhaps they do need to go out and have a few beers.

Maybe the front office shouldn’t have been worried about fast food and beer last year. This could just be the natural pendulum swinging of beer and chicken in a baseball clubhouse, a ring coming two years after the initial problem (see Red Sox, Boston- c. 2013).

Then you have Epstein and Maddon supposedly meeting over drinks last night in attempt to take over the world and decide the fate of the Cubs franchise for the next few years. Strange, right; or, maybe just ironic? Regardless of the word, the Cubs certainly have had a few run-ins with beer-related stories this season. Heck, Maddon wishes they had had more run-ins with beer in person. If it means another ring, I’m all for it too.

I don’t personally care whether the players are playing video games or going out to the bar, but friendship and camaraderie is an enormous part of chemistry in a clubhouse. You don’t need everyone to be best friends, but it wouldn’t hurt either. Perhaps they bring back John Lackey as a Beverage and Social Interaction Consultant for the 2020 season and see how things go. After all, he didn’t come for a haircut, so maybe a beer would work just fine.