From Schwarbs to PCA, this Cubs team feels familiar: Telander

CHICAGO - Free-associating here, folks, maybe hallucinating: The Chicago Cubs winning the World Series for the second time in a decade. Sammy Sosa getting voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The Cubs scoring so many runs they Fed-Ex dozens to the White Sox. The 2025 National League All-Star starting nine consisting only of Cubs.

None of it’s happened yet. Half of it won’t. Half of it couldn’t.

But…

The Cubs and that second World Series crown since 2016 is a looming possibility. Sammy in there with Babe Ruth, Henry Aaron and Ichiro Suzuki is a long-distance possibility.

What is happening to my brain – like half of Chicago’s, I’m guessing – is it keeps circling around, drifting from, then flying back to all things Cubs, ridiculous or not. Their game Sunday night, the 11-0 trashing of the Cardinals at Wrigley Field, just looked too easy. Seriously. Not only did winning pitcher Matthew Boyd strike out nine, give up no runs and lower his remarkable ERA to 2.52, but the Cubs offense scored 10 runs in the first four innings. No team in baseball has scored at least 10 runs in a game more often than the Cubs in 2025.

Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs tips his hat to the bleachers as he takes the field to begin a game against the Cleveland Guardians at Wrigley Field on July 3, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois. (Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images / Getty Images)

And that rout came just two days after the Cubs belted a franchise-record eight home runs in an 11-3 Fourth of July pasting of those alleged ``rival’’ Cardinals. That stuff gets your attention. Cub players Seiya Suzuki, Dansby Swanson and Carson Kelly each hit a home run in that game. Center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong hit two, and first baseman Michael Busch hit three. PCA and Busch went a combined 8-for-8 with seven RBIs.

The Cubs now have the best record in the NL Central, and, well, why not dream a bit? It was nine years ago that the Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years, and, believe me, it was high adrenaline and worry beads until the final out. I remember that postseason like it was yesterday, which is why it’s hard not to dream about it happening again.

The 2016 Cubs had seven players on the All-Star team—Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta, Kris Bryant, Dexter Fowler, Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell, and Ben Zobrist. That included, for only the second time in MLB history, the entire starting infield: third baseman Bryant, shortstop Russell, second baseman Zobrist and first baseman Rizzo. This year’s Cubs have outfielders Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker plus pitcher Boyd in the game. These Cubs make run-scoring look like a gym class where all the kids kick helium-filled dodgeballs everywhere.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JULY 4: Michael Busch #29 of the Chicago Cubs celebrates after hitting his third home run of the game in the bottom of the seventh inning of a game against the St Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field on July 4, 2025 in Chicago, Illino (Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images)

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You can’t say enough about what Crow-Armstrong, just 23, has brought to the club. Even his mistakes are full-tilt, all out, as infectious as mumps. He makes catches in center field so improbably unlikely that you have to see replays to figure out how he and his glove got there before the ball hit the grass. Something called Baseball Savant has estimated the probability of some of his catches being made by any human at as low as 5 percent, with one amazing catch in that 11-3 Cardinals game having a zero percent chance of being caught. But PCA caught it. So he should be an All-Star for years to come.

But it wouldn’t hurt if a few other Cubs were on this year's All-Star roster, like DH Suzuki, who has the most RBIs in the league (77), and first baseman Busch and even catcher Carson Kelly. Pitcher Shota Imanaga would be a no-brainer if he hadn’t missed so much time with a hamstring injury.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JULY 3: Matt Shaw #6 of the Chicago Cubs celebrates his game-winning sacrifice fly in the 10th inning against the Cleveland Guardians with teammate Pete Crow-Armstrong #4 at Wrigley Field on July 3, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Pho (Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images)

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It’s interesting that Phillies slugging DH Kyle Schwarber beat out the slugging Suzuki this year. I’ll never forget when young Schwarbs himself was a Cubs rookie helping get the early magic rolling in 2015 by hitting a mammoth home run in that year’s NL Divisional Series against the Cardinals, a moon shot that landed on the Budweiser sign atop the Wrigley scoreboard in right field. Cubs officials first removed the ball, then, realizing it had become lore, put it back where it landed, encased in Plexiglass.

In 2016, Schwarber made a remarkable recovery from in-season knee surgery to play in the Cubs’ curse-busting World Series championship (he went 3-for-5 in Game 7). I promise if the Cubs make it to the World Series this season, you’ll hear plenty more from this old boy about all that old stuff—from Schwarbs bombs to Theo Epstein’s whiffle ball career in Central Park to Kris Bryant driving a Lyft to hallucinations over goats. As you know, anything’s possible with the Cubs.

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