Chicago Cubs March Madness Bracket – Round of 32

Chicago Cubs: Mesa Region

• 1 seed Ryne Sandberg defeats 16 seed Pat Malone
• 8 seed Bob Rush defeats 9 seed Lon Warneke
• 12 seed Aramis Ramirez defeats 5 seed Billy Herman
• 4 seed Mark Grace defeats 13 seed Bill Lange

• 6 seed Carlos Zambrano defeats 11 seed Woody English
• 3 seed Rick Reuschel defeats 14 seed Frank Schulte
• 10 seed Andy Pafko defeats 7 seed Jimmy Ryan
• 2 seed Sammy Sosa defeats 15 seed Dick Ellsworth

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Two upsets out of Mesa include more modern Cub favorite Aramis Ramirez and four-time All-Star from the 1940s and 50s, Andy Pafko. Ramirez was one of the most consistent and productive Cubs for his almost decade with the club after coming over from the Pittsburgh Pirates (along with Kenny Lofton) for Jose Hernandez, Bobby Hill, and Matt Bruback.

After the results from the first round, here’s how the Mesa region stacks up now:

• 1 seed Ryne Sandberg vs. 8 seed Bob Rush
• 12 seed Aramis Ramirez vs. 4 seed Mark Grace
• 6 seed Carlos Zambrano vs. 3 seed Rick Reuschel
• 10 seed Andy Pafko vs. 2 seed Sammy Sosa

There are a ton of modern era Cubs players in this batch, and the bottom part of the bracket has two great modern Cubs who left things on shaky ground at the end of their careers due to poor choices and off-field incidents. Then you have Ryno staring down a potential matchup in the next round with the guy he stood next to for a decade in the late 1980s and 1990s.