Something missing from this calendar?
(The top part is the real calendar, the bottom is my parody of what could be on the back of the calendar)
Hopefully the players featured on the 2014 Chicago Cubs calendar will fare better than the 2013 calendar. All four Chicago Cub players on the cover of the 2013 Cubs calendar were traded or released in 2013.
Oddly enough, the order of the first three players on the calendar are the same order in which they were released or traded in chronological order.
Ryan Dempster
December 19, 2012: Signed as a Free Agent with the Boston Red Sox.Matt Garza
July 22, 2013: Traded by the Chicago Cubs to the Texas Rangers for a player to be named later, C.J. Edwards (minors), Justin Grimm and Mike Olt.Alfonso Soriano
July 26, 2013: Traded by the Chicago Cubs with cash to the New York Yankees for Corey Black (minors).Geovany Soto
July 31, 2012: Traded by the Chicago Cubs to the Texas Rangers for Jacob Brigham (minors) and player to be named or cash.
Teams might be afraid to feature one player on the cover of their calendar. You figure that putting four players on the cover of your calendar is a safe bet in case one of the players leaves the team.
Having two of your players leave is understandable. Three of the four would be crazy. All four premiere players not being on your team is just unbelievable–especially in the same year of the calendar!
Here’s to the 2014 Cubs!
A big thanks to Antonio Delgado for his photo of the ivy used as the parody back of the calendar. I needed a nice background for the back, so I searched on flickr for creative commons licensed photos of the ivy. His was the best. View the original photo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hitnruntony/6807480176/in/faves-spudart/
That is hilarious. All four gone by season’s end and they left in the order of appearance on the cover? That’s remarkable. I don’t understand why they just didn’t put Rizzo and/or Castro on the cover. Going into the 2013 season there were big expectations for both players. They’re the face of the franchise. I suppose Soriano was the standard guy.
The choice behind the players on the calendar probably has something to do with MLB producing the calendar. All the other teams in the MLB have the same template with four players on the cover. Given that they have to design 30 covers, they probably did the selection and design months in advance, maybe even in the middle of the 2012 season–which would explain the choice of Dempster and Soto who both left the team in 2012.
I’d like to see Albert Almora, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant and Jorge Soler on the cover of 2014. I don’t care that none of them has sported an MLB jersey yet. Those four guys are going to superstar historical figures when they bring a World Series title to Chicago in 2016, maybe 2017. Out of the four, my guess is that Baez is the biggest star with Bryant a close second. People say Baez has the fastest bat since Gary Sheffield and Bryant has progressed rapidly since being drafted out of college last year.
Those are nice selections. I know nothing about these four players, but the way you talk about them gets me excited.