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Bleed Cubbie Blue

A Chicago Cubs Fan Community Since February 9, 2005

Latest Entries

Chicago Cubs history unpacked — January 2

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow the various narrative paths. “Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.” — Tom Connolly, HoF Umpire. RIP Bill Veeck*, and other stories. Today in baseball history: Cubs Birthdays: Ray Jacobs, Nick Dumovich, […]

The eighth day of Cubsmas: Eight home runs on the Fourth of July

On the first day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meAn Anthony Rizzo retirement for the ages, On the second day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meA $2 scorecard On the third day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meThree Schwarbombs in the first All-Star Game Home Run Swing-Off On the fourth day of […]

Tatsuya Imai has signed with the Astros. What’s next for the Cubs?

News item: So, okay, the guy who could have really helped the Cubs rotation isn’t available anymore. And here’s the money for Tatsuya Imai: Yes, the Cubs could easily have afforded that. Maybe it wasn’t totally about money — remember, Imai had said at one point that he wanted to challenge himself by NOT signing […]

Happy New Year 2026!

Happy New Year to you from all of us at BCB. Here’s the full image from above: Here’s my wish for you to have a happy, healthy 2025, and also a wish for the Chicago Cubs to have a successful season and hopefully return to the postseason. If you are looking for a baseball alternative […]

MLB

The sixth day of Cubsmas: A six (and a half) game lead in the division

On the first day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meAn Anthony Rizzo retirement for the ages, On the second day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meA $2 scorecardAnd an Anthony Rizzo retirement for the ages On the third day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meThree Schwarbombs in the first All-Star Game Home […]

Cubs position player pitchers: Ian Happ

I touched on this appearance briefly in yesterday’s post in this series, about Victor Caratini. Ian Happ’s lone pitching appearance in the major leagues came in a game where Joe Maddon used three position players to finish up after the Cubs were hopelessly behind. Happ threw the top of the ninth inning July 20, 2018 […]

In memoriam: Remembering the Cubs we lost in 2025

At year’s end, it’s a good time to reflect and remember those who passed away throughout the year. In the baseball world in general: Hall of Famer Dave Parker and notables Rich Dauer, Mike Greenwell and Chet Lemon, and, of course, Hall of Fame Frick Award winner Bob Uecker. There were also 17 members of […]

Chicago Cubs news and notes — Harvey, Hodge

At the rate we’re going, we’ll be down to one or two articles next issue. I doubt that’d be unusual — but I’ll have to put in a full day to find them. The click-baitery and hired bushwah have gotten SO bad. Sad times. There’s a site that does nothing but make up bad trade […]

Cubs BCB After Dark: Is the bullpen in good hands?

Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the grooviest gathering of night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. It’s good to see you back. We hope you had a wonderful holiday break. Please come on in out of the cold. We can check your coat for you. Don’t lose that ticket. There are […]

The fifth day of Cubsmas: A five game winning streak

On the first day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meAn Anthony Rizzo retirement for the ages, On the second day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meA $2 scorecardAnd an Anthony Rizzo retirement for the ages On the third day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meThree Schwarbombs in the first All-Star Game Home […]

Cubs position player pitchers: Victor Caratini

Cubs backup catcher Victor Caratini pitched four times for the team, twice each in 2018 and 2019. I’m doing these in chronological order, then alphabetically, so Caratini is the first of three (!) Cubs position players who pitched in an 18-5 loss to the Cardinals July 20, 2018. Jon Lester started this game and had […]

MLB

The 5 best Cubs games of 2025

It is, I suppose, a testament to the 2025 Cubs season that all five of these games — plus one of the two “honorable mention” games — were in the season’s first half. That’s when the Cubs offense was cruising and they put together a division lead. Of course, you know about the struggles in […]

Here’s what the Cubs bullpen would look like if Opening Day were today

The Cubs haven’t made any major signings to date this offseason. This, you know. Not bringing you any new information here. Jed Hoyer and Co., however, have signed a flurry of new relief pitchers to the staff. As of the time of this post, one of those signings has not yet been officially announced by […]

MLB News Outside The Confines: Ring out the old

Good morning. Most of our stories today come from state-approved media—i.e. MLB dot com—because it seems like most of the rest of the baseball media took the weekend off, as well as most of the front offices and free agents.

MLB

Chicago Cubs history unpacked — December 29

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow the various narrative paths. “Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.” — Tom Connolly, HoF Umpire. Happy birthday to Kevin Hart* and other former Cubs. You think you have tribbles? Today […]

The fourth day of Cubsmas: Four postseason wins

On the first day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meAn Anthony Rizzo retirement for the ages, On the second day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meA $2 scorecardAnd an Anthony Rizzo retirement for the ages On the third day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meThree Schwarbombs in the first All-Star Game Home […]

Cubs historical sleuthing: Jackie Robinson Day edition

This one’s pretty easy, because it says “Jackie Robinson Day, April 15, 2007” on the message board beneath the Wrigley Field scoreboard. Credit again goes to BCB reader Clark Addison. In fact, it’s the very first Jackie Robinson Day, and Griffey was the player most responsible for making that happen. April 15, 2007 was the […]

Chicago Cubs news and notes — Caissie, Harvey, Horton

You might think the Cubs should transition to starters now, having filled the bullpen with over-30 arms yet again. Ken Rosenthal believes in Owen Caissie. *means autoplay on, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments. […]

The 12 days of Cubsmas 2025

The fourth day of Cubsmas: Four postseason wins The third day of Cubsmas: Three Schwarbombs in the first All-Star home run swing-off The second day of Cubsmas: A $2 scorecard The first day of Cubsmas: One Anthony Rizzo retirement for the ages

Cubs sign reliever Hunter Harvey

This Cubs offseason appears to be, at least so far, “Sign All The Relievers Except The Big-Name Ones” year for Jed Hoyer. Next up: Hunter Harvey was the Orioles’ first-round pick (22nd overall) in 2013 out of high school in North Carolina and eventually wound up with the Nationals, where he had a couple of […]

Wrigley Field historical sleuthing: Mid 2000s scoreboard edition

Here is another photo courtesy of BCB reader Clark Addison. This is obviously taken from the concourse behind the right-field bleachers, sometime before a game started, early enough so that no starting pitchers have been posted. All we have are the matchups, and we know this is a day game and the Cubs are hosting […]

Chicago Cubs news and notes — Cabrera, Gore, Tucker

This is traditionally one of the slowest weeks in Hot Stove Season. But January may bring some movement. *means autoplay on, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments. Food For Thought: Please be reminded that Cub […]

Cubs position player pitchers: Chris Gimenez

The Cubs had struggled early in 2018, but a 16-7 run from May 27 to June 20 had put them into a first-place tie with the Brewers at 42-29. Then they went on a disastrous road trip to Cincinnati and Los Angeles where they lost six of eight. The third of those games was against […]

The second day of Cubsmas: A $2 scorecard

On the first day of Cubsmas My true love gave to me An Anthony Rizzo retirement for the ages, On the second day of CubsmasMy true love gave to meA $2 scorecardAnd an Anthony Rizzo retirement for the ages Like everything in society, the cost of going to a baseball game to enjoy America’s pastime […]