On July 2nd 2013, the Cubs sent Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger to the Baltimore Orioles for Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop. At the time, the Orioles were looking to bolster their pitching staff as they were in the midst of a pennant race. The Cubs on the other hand were on their way to a 96 loss season. Saying a lot has changed since then may be an understatement, and a big reason why the culture of Chicago Cubs baseball has changed is because of Jake Arrieta.
As a member of the Cubs in his first year back in 2013, Arrieta posted a modest 3.66 ERA in 51.2 IP. However, it wouldn't be until the following year that he would break out and make a big impression. In 2014, Arrieta jumped onto the scene as one of baseball's best pitchers. He posted a remarkable 2.53 ERA and finished ninth in Cy Young voting. Although Cubs fans may have known his name by now, the rest of the league was left in the dark; mostly due to the fact Chicago finished last in the central with a 73-89 record. In 2015, the Cubs took the league by storm as they won 97 games and advanced to the NLCS. At the time, the Cubs were a year ahead of Theo Epstein's and Jed Hoyer’s masterful 5-year plan to become contenders. In hindsight, Jake Arrieta was one of the first big steps Theo and Jed took in order to make the Cubs a legitimate threat. As the Cubs blossomed in 2015, so did Arrieta. He dominated hitters every time he took the mound and developed into a true ace. 22 of the 97 games the Cubs won that year were due to Arrieta. He cruised through the regular season with an insane 1.77 ERA, struck out 236 batters in 229 innings of work, and threw a no-hitter. Post all-star break for Arrieta was so dominate that he set a few records along the way. His 0.75 ERA in the second half of the 2015 season was the lowest in the history of Major League Baseball. His historic year earned him the Cy Young, and sixth place in MVP voting. As if Arrieta hadn’t done enough, he threw a complete game shut out against the Pirates in the wild card game, giving the Cubs their first postseason victory since 2008. In the NLDS vs the Cardinals, Arrieta had one start in which he struck out nine and won. After the Cubs defeated the Cardinals, they ran out of steam in the NLCS vs the Mets. The way that Jake would dominate a game that season was something we've never seen before. For someone who struggled to find himself in years past in the AL, he transformed himself as an established house hold name throughout the baseball world. Something Cubs fans would call "Jake Day" became some sort of holiday for Cubs Nation where they had to tune in to watch Arrieta lay it all on the line each start, executing pitch after pitch, and fooling hitters at the plate. Still to this day, one of my favorite Arrieta starts is that 2015 Wild Card game. In a must win game, Maddon gave the ball to the horse in our staff. The grit that Arrieta showed in that Wild Card Game from striking out batters, silencing out the Pittsburgh crowd, getting intentionally hit by a pitch, and finding a way to get out of jams was warrior like. There was no stopping this man. After an unprecedented year, Arrieta followed up by accomplishing a 3.10 ERA and throwing another no-hitter in 2016. As most everyone knows by now, the Cubs went on to win the World Series in stunning fashion that year, and Arrieta was an integral part of that. In the World Series vs Cleveland Arrieta pitched 11.1 innings, had a 2.38 ERA, and won each of his two starts, including an elimination game. Jake showed up each day and delivered when called on. Some of his biggest and most important starts came in that 2016 World Series and he nonetheless showed out. After coming off a World Series high, in 2017 Arrieta's 3.53 ERA doesn't tell the whole story. In his last 18 starts he looked as good as ever, posting a 2.68 ERA and winning crucial games. In the playoffs, Arrieta was able to keep the season alive one more game with a phenomenal 6.2 inning outing vs the Dodgers in the NLCS. He once again proved his value in winning his second career elimination game. With the signing of Yu Darvish in 2018, both parties parted ways. Arrieta found a new home within Philadelphia. All Cubs fans should sincerely thank Jake Arrieta for the no-hitters, delivering a Cy Young season for the Cubs for the first time since 1992, and dazzling playoff performances each time he was called on. Above all, they should thank him for helping deliver a World Series championship to a city deprived of one for 108 years. As Theo Epstein may have opened a new chapter with Yu Darvish and closed a previous chapter in Cubs history, I'm going to leave you with this quote from the smartest man in all of baseball: "None of us have rings without Jake". Thank you, Jake Arrieta.
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Quentin McCree, a 34 year old baseball enthusiast, has had an ongoing struggle with anxiety throughout his life but with the help of his encouraging wife he’s overcome his self doubt by pursuing an idea he’s always had, a baseball podcast. The Greatest Show On Dirt podcast hosted by Quentin McCree from the Suite B Studios can be seen on iTunes, Google Play, and many other streaming sites. What people hear when they tune in is a die hard baseball fan who is ranting for 40 minutes at a time, talking about America’s pastime, occasionally his fascination for Old Style beer, and thoroughly enjoying himself. What others don’t see is what goes on behind the scenes and what led up to creating the podcast. Quentin has always been around the baseball scene. His grandparents grew up across the street from him and he can still remember to this day, being six years old running to grandma and grandpa’s house huddling around a 13 inch Emerson TV and watching the Cubs on WGN. While his dad was his coach and mentor growing up playing little league, his mom would throw batting practice to him when his dad was at work. It was in his blood from a young age and it has helped him build relationships with the people around him. As Quentin grew up and attended grade school, middle school, and high school he developed anxiety and has had an ongoing struggle with it. It was hard for him to even get up in front of a class and speak without turning beat red and feeling the pressure. That anxiety has held him back from a lot and made him constantly second guess himself. “It’s crippling,'' Quentin explained it. Finally in 2015, he took matters into his own hands and wanted to tackle his anxiety and find a way to overcome it. It wasn’t going to be easy. For a guy with a passion for writing, creating a blog seemed like a great idea. It was a platform for Quentin to vent with his words and express his thoughts. On his first blog post, it took Quentin two weeks to even press publish because he would question himself so much. “Oh my god, who’s going to read this?” “What if people don’t like it?”. After posting the first one, he gained some sort of confidence and started to believe in himself. “Since then, I’ve always tried to push myself to create freely and act freely to be who I really was”, Quentin said. After two years of writing, Quentin thought of the idea of a baseball podcast. There was nothing he was more knowledgeable about than the game of baseball but he had no idea how to get started. As the new idea approached in his head, some anxiety started back up. “It’s recording your voice for 40 minutes. Holy crap, what am I going to talk about?”. It took him about 6 months to actually order the equipment from his shopping cart online and a wife telling him to just go for it. The Greatest Show On Dirt is a unique name for a podcast and it’s something Quentin didn’t take long to figure out. They say the best ideas are the ones that come unexpected and this is certainly one of them. He randomly thought of it at the gym after his workout. The name, The Greatest Show On Dirt, popped in his head and instantly he ran with it. If you there's any words to be said about baseball, a lot of people call it a “boring” sport. So when this idea of a baseball podcast popped up in Quentin’s mind he wanted to do something that would grab people's attention and to make baseball fun again. He wanted to incorporate a way where his listeners would be so tied into the episode they would forget about the time and make them thoroughly enjoy the baseball talk. After researching, watching Youtube videos, and reaching out to tech savvy friends Quentin learned how to create a podcast and put it out to the world to listen to. Quentin’s wife, Courtney, has been such a big supporter of his ultimate goals and after pushing him to get this podcast going, she even found herself guest appearing on the show talking with her husband about America’s pastime. “She’s always been supportive because I think she knows how much this means to me and she knows how much love I have for baseball”. A podcast can become very time consuming and it has taken away some of their bonding time but with a supportive wife like Courtney, Quentin said “this wouldn't be possible”. Through this journey he has also learned how to manage his time better. He sets aside dates for when he is going to record, he manages his bonding time with his wife better, and this experience has shown him that time management is very important. Social media in today's society is a huge way to market any type of business, vlog, product or, in Quentin’s case, a podcast. Quentin has learned how to effectively communicate better with his audience through each social media platform. For his twitter followers, he may choose a gif or a witty short composed message to grab peoples attention. As for Facebook, a lengthier more formal sense of post is more effective. With The Greatest Show On Dirt podcast up and running, Quentin has found his inner self and how to express himself on a bigger platform. Being someone who has grown up and struggled with anxiety, this podcast has shown him that he can do the things he used to second guess. He was allowing those inner demons to hold him back and all he needed was a drive of success to pull him through and defeat them demons in his brain. In the past five months, Quentin has had multiple guests come on the show to talk baseball & those guests are now long time friends all because of baseball. There’s one guest Quentin would love to come on the show and it’s Gerald Early. Gerald is a professor at Washington University who specializes in African American studies and is super involved in the early history of the Negro League. The Negro League has always been something Quentin’s been fascinated in and Quentin said “I would sit down with Gerald for an hour and just talk baseball with him. He is the closest thing you will get to a Negro League player because he is so intelligent about the history but his view on baseball is so remarkable that you can’t get it anywhere else”. The Greatest Show On Dirt has been up and running since September of 2017 and Quentin is loving the results. He hasn’t focused so much on the numbers he is bringing in, he is more focused on the interactions that people have with him. “I want people of all ages to enjoy this. I have not looked once into how many people actually view the podcast because that is where people can make money. I never even thought about making money off of this thing. If that were to happen that would be great but I never created this podcast because I didn't like my nine to five job, I created this to have something people love”. Quentin’s goals in the future are to become more visual. A huge part in today's media is video or for someone to watch something. The phone is becoming the TV and the TV is becoming the radio. He wants to create videos that are short, up to one or two minutes long, and grab people's attention in and share on social media. Throughout this journey of starting up a podcast, never in a million years did Quentin think it would turn out the way it has now. He has learned so much about podcasting and more so himself. He has learned to trust himself, put content out, and be confident about it. This has allowed him to be who he really is and to never hold back on something. The anxiety has faded away and he has become at peace with who he really is. This just goes to show that if you love something, go out and do it because you never want to live with those “what ifs'' in life. |
Kyle MalzhanFounder who is an aspiring journalist who covers the Chicago Cubs daily. Archives
April 2020
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