Column: From Ryne Sandberg tributes to All-Star Game plans, what we learned in an eventful Chicago Cubs week

A baseball season is a six-month trip with a few lulls between the two, but rarely makes a section of definition of a team like this could define the Cubs of Chicago 2025.

From the final of the City series to the force test with the Brewers of Milwaukee on the deadline for trade in tributes from Friday and Saturday to Ryne Sandberg to Wrigley Field, the Cubs crossed a whirlwind of emotions during last week.

They added four players to the deadline and said goodbye to a popular clubhouse voice in the Ryan pressed lifter, with the inner field player Vidal Bruján and the lifter Chris Flexen. Not acquiring an impact starter or a third basic player on the deadline was an indication that the front office believes in the group which made the cubs at this point, but this also means that players must justify the faith of President Jed Hoyer in them.

They learned in Monday’s match in Milwaukee from Sandberg’s death, and although most players had a minimum interaction with him outside of spring training, they graciously thought about his impact on the organization and themselves as if he had been with them all season. The comment of the former Cub Shawon Dunston that the current cubs are “many like Ryno” was both a compliment and a challenge.

How do you imitate one of the greatest players in the history of the franchise? By playing for the team and not on yourself, a legacy of the legendary career of Sandberg.

Outside the field, the announcements of the extension of the Hoyer contract and the star game coming to Wrigley Field in 2027 put the cubs under the spotlight. The New Deal of Hoyer has shown the belief of the Ricketts family in a plan which included the departure of the stars of the 2016 championship nucleus to start a new chapter, while MLB has shown that Cubs can carry out a major event in a small ball stadium which is not particularly suitable for an overflow of international media and corporate sponsors.

There is no time for the cubs to catch their breath after such an eventful week, but here are some things that we learned this weekend in Wrigley.

Mike Royko’s family organized a private memorial In Wrigley Field, shortly after Royko’s death in 1997, and we listened to the emotional praise of Studs Terkel, Rick Kogan and other friends while seated in the boxed box behind the Cubs canoe. It was a perfect sending for the legendary columnist who made the part of the Cubs and Wrigley many memorable columns.

The Sandberg family has not announced their plans, but I hope they include a memorial at Wrigley for the Great Cubs, who helped follow the stadium on a new course with the dreamlike season. Ernie Banks and Ron Santo died during the offseason without any possibility for fans to meet in Wrigley for a shipment. It would be a perfect way to say goodbye to a legend.

When I asked questions about an emergency plan For the star game in the event of work stopping in 2027, Commissioner Rob Manfred replied: “My emergency plan is to conclude an agreement with the players and play the ’27 season.” I don’t think he knows the meaning of the word “possibility”.

The luck of a lockout in 2027 is real. The players’ union will not accept any type of salary proposal, and MLB would accept nothing less than a ceiling. “It is natural when you arrive at the end of a collective agreement that the half-glass people were apprehended on what will happen,” said Manfred. “I am optimistic that we will find a way to conclude an agreement.”

Little share this optimism on the side of the players. Although nobody wants to hear this, players have a lever effect with the possibility of going out in the second half of the 2026 season, forcing the owners to present a good case without ceiling. Faced with the loss of money from the playoffs, the owners should decide if it is worth it.

Otherwise, the players could wait to block themselves after the season, when they would have no leverage.

Philadelphia Star Phillies Bryce Harper became a folk hero when he told Manfred to “get out (BIP)” from their clubhouse if he wanted to talk about a salary ceiling, as Espn reported.

“I’m not talking about these players’ meetings,” Manfred said on Friday. “Let me say this: I think more was done from this that it should not be done. Bryce expressed his opinions. At the end of the meeting, we shook hands and we are separated. ”

The union needs more Bryce harp which are ready to express their minds in power. At least he has one.

Regarding the Bollards plan for Wrigley Field, Manfred confirmed that “the security program of the perimeter was in a way the last issue which was to be resolved” before assigning the cubs the game of the stars. However, when he asked him questions about the security around the stadium, Manfred has sanded, saying that it is not his “level of detail” and advisor to journalists to “speak to cubs”.

So we did it. Will they have to block Waveland and Sheffield avenues for the Home Run Derby and All-Star game for security reasons? “I don’t think we are still so far,” said President Tom Ricketts. “We are just happy to arrive to this day and make the announcement.”

It will be an interesting decision, given the appeal of a Derby Home Run baseball and the cost of standing in a public street in Chicago. The last time we heard is always free. The city would even let the cubs stop it if they wanted it? Stay listening.

Mayor Brandon Johnson had the most ridiculous line During the press conference on Friday, insisting that “being able to attract large-scale events like this still confirms the confidence of companies in my leadership”.

The attribution of the stars game had nothing to do with the leadership of Johnson, which is questionable, and everything to do with the Cubs who have not welcomed one in Wrigley since 1990. It has been their turn for a few years.

Johnson also embarrassed by calling Chicago “the best frightening city in the world”, a line he likes to repeat as if he was still in high school. The next election of the town hall is in February 2027, so Johnson will probably not be there to further embarrass the Chicagoans during the stars festivities.

Ricketts told the story To live in an apartment above the sports bar at the corner of Addison and Sheffield in the early 1990s. “My brother (Pete) thinks he remembers that we were there for two years,” said Ricketts. “I don’t remember. It was a long time ago, and it was my missed youth. ”

Ricketts said he couldn’t stall a ticket for the 1990 star match and went around the neighborhood during the match instead. Apparently, he did not ask his billionaire father if he could borrow a few dollars during his unhappy youth.

Perhaps in the honor of his days as an ordinary fan of cubs with a budget, he can reserve a few hundred tickets for the 2027 stars game for real fans, instead of leaving companies, subscription holders and family friends releases them.