FIRST PITCH GAME PROGRAM
TAXI! TAXI! READ ALL ABOUT IT! 2020 SAW FOUR WINDS FIELD AS THE HOST OF THE CHICAGO CUBS "TAXI-SQUAD" By Max Thoma
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round here, people like to say the road to Wrigley starts in South Bend. Well in 2020 that road was much more direct and experienced a lot more traffic. On March 12, 2020 Major League Baseball announced that the remainder of Spring Training games would be cancelled and that the season, originally scheduled to start March 26, would be pushed back at least two weeks. Two weeks turned into almost four months and the MLB season finally started up on July 23. The Covid pandemic delayed and shortened the MLB season, but it cancelled the Minor League Baseball season entirely. Major league franchises were forced into creating so called “Taxi-Squads”, a group of top prospects and players with big-league experience for the clubs to pluck from, in order to continue to train guys who may need to be called up during the season. There was no outlined criteria for the Chicago Cubs in finding a destination for this group of players; however, naturally they weighed two major factors, proximity and quality of facilities. “When we heard that that was going to be an option, we absolutely put a presentation together and showed everything that we could do for the Cubs, and really that started with obviously the facilities that we have here with the Performance Center and locker room,” said South Bend Cubs President Joe
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Hart. “But I think the biggest selling point was that we have the Ivy at Berlin Place, the apartments right out beyond the outfield wall, in which we could house the players.” That sentiment was echoed by Cubs President of Baseball Operations, Jed Hoyer... “Players can literally walk from their room right down to the field.” And on June 28 the Cubs announced Four Winds Field would be the site of the Taxi-Squad, or ‘Alternate Site’. Less than a two-hour drive from the Friendly Confines and with a strong track record of rehabbing top-level talent, the ballpark at the corner of Taylor Street and South Street was the most logical choice. Within the next 10 days the players were selected. The original group consisted of 11 players, including the Cubs top three prospects: left-handed starting pitcher Brailyn Marquez, catcher Miguel Amaya and outfielder Brennen Davis. A strange summer of baseball would officially kick off on a hot and sunny July 7 day in downtown South Bend. With every team creating their own ‘bubble’ there was no other team for this group of young men to play. Guys would show up to the field for three to five hours a day for standard drills, workouts and practice. But the key at any level of baseball, especially for younger players close to the MLB-level, is to continue to develop. And to develop, simply put, you need to play live games.
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Brennen Davis makes a running catch during a Taxi Squad workout. (July 23, 2020) Instagram @SBCubs
