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2020 SAW FOUR WINDS FIELD AS THE HOST OF THE CHICAGO CUBS "TAXI-SQUAD"

By Max Thoma

Around 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

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.

And so live games were played, though they were not exactly what you’d expect a July baseball game to look like. No fans. No opposing team. Often coaches playing in the field defensively. Maybe even Cubs’ manager David Ross on a live Zoom call watching the action on the scoreboard.

Chicago Cubs Manager David Ross watches a team scrimmage while on the road with the Major League club. (August 24, 2020)

Cubs Triple-A manager Marty Pevey would write out lineup cards for inter squad scrimmages every day, games usually in the middle of a long season. But in this scenario, they were rendered meaningless in the sense that wins and losses didn’t matter, it was baseball played for the sole purpose of getting reps in and continuing to improve. Baseball stripped down to its simplest form; nothing but the game itself.

The players lived within a couple hundred feet of the ballpark and when you’re playing each other every single day and then going back and staying in your apartment complex the rest of the day, days tend to blend together and it can be hard to maintain a certain level of sanity.

“It was like Groundhog Day, every day,”said Pevey, the winningest coach in Iowa Cubs history. “It was definitely different. It was tough.”

Going through the same routine day after day and facing the same competition all the time still proved to be of vital importance to the guys on the field.

“I was fortunate to be a part of that,” said the Cubs 2019 Minor League Player of the Year, Brennen Davis. “That really was a big step in my development. To get to play guys from Double-A, Triple-A, guys who are up and down from the big leagues, day in and day out. To be able to face that competition, the experience, the way they sequence pitching and are able to pick the hitters brain, is way more valuable than what I would’ve gotten in High-A or wherever I would’ve gone.”

Due to these strange circumstances, players could get as many as eight at-bats in a single game against the best competition outside of an MLB stadium.

Miguel Amaya poses for a photo during batting practice. (August 5, 2020)

In an unprecedented time, these were truly bizarre scenes.

“Probably one of the funniest stories was that with a very limited staff and a few coaches, a day in the afternoon when it rained, we tried to get the tarp on the field,” said Hart. “It’s pouring rain, we’re soaking wet, and we just couldn’t get it all the way across the field. The players weren’t allowed to come out because we were on the field... So I’m just standing out there talking to Marty as we’re getting pounded by rain and realizing that this thing is not moving anymore.”

The hard work was paying dividends on and off the field.

Young guys were getting both high quality and vast quantities of game-style action; and they would get a chance to observe Cubs stars, like Kris Bryant, at a close distance.

Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant digs in for an at-bat during a simulated game at Four Winds Field. (September 9, 2020)

“You watch how they go through their early work and how they go about their business and you take notes,” said the twenty one year old Davis. “You build off of what you see from him and work it into your daily routine... he doesn’t take any reps for granted and everything is so strategical. It’s just, it’s awesome to watch.”

And once again the improvement on the field at Four Winds Field was echoed from the top of the Cubs organization. “I was really proud of the all the work we did in player development this year,” said Hoyer. “And I have no question that we made significant gains over our competition this year, judging by the improvements our guys made at South Bend and the improvements I know guys made on their own in these odd settings."

And off the field, the attention to detail and navigating the nuances of maintaining everyone's health and safety could be measured tangibly, as the Chicago Cubs were the only team in the MLB without a single positive test. The Taxi Squad in South Bend never produced a positive test either.

The sentiment across the board from players, coaches, executives and staff members who were on hand in South Bend was best characterized by Head Groundskeeper Jairo Rubio... “It was a unique experience unlike anything I’ve had in my 17 years in baseball. With that said, god I hope we never have to do it again.”