Cubs and ‘the Compound’ awaiting COVID-19, baseball activities

The Chicago Cubs and ‘The Compound’ are awaiting the COVID-19 and baseball activities. The question is, when will it happen?

The Chicago Cubs and ‘The Compound,’ made up of Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner, Zack Short and Dakota Mekkes are ready for baseball. But first, they await the coronavirus to subside.  Spain, next to the United States, has the second-highest reported cases of the coronavirus aside from the U.S. They will loosen the stranglehold on the virus, but it’s subject to restrictions.

According to Jay Cohen from the Associated Press, they have been playing tennis, doing workouts, a podcast, and recording their day-to-day life. It’s a ‘tough’ life living with three fellow players–but they manage it.

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“I think it just helps to have camaraderie in this time,” Happ said. “A lot of guys are at home, away from the team and kind of missing that element. So for us, just to be around teammates, around guys that understand the uncertainty, understand what each other are going through, yeah, it’s definitely nice.”

MLB is looking at ways to get as many games in. That includes hosting in Arizona, Florida and Texas. Texas has been added to the potential list, but the COVID-19 pandemic will influence it. Short, an infielder from Kingston, New York, didn’t want to catch anything.

“I didn’t want to, God forbid, catch something on the way home or something like that, bring it home,” said Short, “So I tried my best to stay away from going home and ever since then we’ve been here.”

Short said they play doubles every day, teaming with Hoerner to take on Happ and Mekkes. Happ said crosstraining and the tennis put stress on the body. The muscles that they work to make all the difference in the world. At least that’s what they said. Tennis, before cancer? Nope. I was playing every day, and I still was sore. No, sir.

So Happ is primarily the ‘number one’ for the podcast. Hoerner, who went to Stanford, has been taking the lead on video editing. The guests range from Kyle Schwarber, Jon Lester, actor Jeff Garlin–a big Cubs fan–and quality control coach Mike Napoli. Happ will admit he has no idea how they do it.

“I have respect for content creators who are constantly putting stuff out because it’s not easy to stay on top of,” Happ said.