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Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki (27) returns to the dugout to greetings from manager David Ross, left, Nick Madrigal (1) and others after hitting a two-run home run against the Mariners during a spring training game Wednesday in Mesa, Ariz. (Ross D. Franklin / AP)
Even more important, winning on the road is essential in the postseason. As the Bulls still grapple with their recent tumble to the fifth spot in the East, they are preparing to enter the playoffs with a lower seed — and therefore a higher likelihood not to have home-court advantage in a first-round series.
The Yankees’ players spent over an hour before Wednesday’s game watching as front office and team support personnel tried out their jobs. With the players laughing, and sometimes cheering, they watched as baseball operations, analytics, public relations and clubhouse workers took batting practice, raced around the bases and tried to catch pop-ups.
“Honestly, just feels good to be back home,” Bailey said. “I haven’t been here, prior to playing Glenbard West, for three years. I’ve just been in LA, working and crafting. Any chance I get to see my family and friends all in one spot in an arena like Wintrust, that’s a blessing for sure.”
We’ll start with the Sox, who can boast of an all-time-high payroll of $193 million, according to fangraphs.com, to deflect any criticism of an alleged lack of spending. General manager Rick Hahn also can point to last summer’s extension to Lance Lynn and the acquisition of former Cubs closer Craig Kimbrel as proof the Sox don’t mind shelling out money during the season.
“Especially coming from where I just came from, I want to give him everything I possibly can, but you still have to construct an entire team,” he said. “You can’t go blank in one area and then just load up in one area. … So we’re always going to be aggressive to get him the tools he needs to be successful. It’s just the timing, and the talent level and the cap situation, all of those are going to dictate when we can go and when we can’t go. But what we’ve done so far is at least establish a little bit of growth in the roster, plus the scheme, with the coaching, I see him getting better even from what we did right now.”
The 36-year-old’s focus centered on continuing to get properly built up. He briefly departed camp to return to Rhode Island to attend the birth of his third child, a son, Everett. Robertson threw live batting practice Tuesday for the first time this spring, one week before the Cubs depart Mesa, Ariz., for Chicago ahead of the season opener April 7 at Wrigley Field.
“We had a good discussion about it. There was a lot of good data presented about it. We had a good discussion internally about it, decided to hear what the conversation was in the meeting room, and I think it’s a good result. The concern they had was that too often a flip of the coin had too much impact on the outcome of the game, particularly playoff games, and so this was designed to address that.”
A year ago, Bills owners indicated they would not be renewing the lease on Highmark Stadium, which opened in 1973, until there was an agreement with state and county officials to aid the funding of a new stadium project. Highmark Stadium is the fourth-oldest NFL venue behind Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., Lambeau Field in Green Bay and Soldier Field, which opened in 1924 and has been home to the Bears since 1971.
Framed another way, of the 28 coaches who said cheese at The Breakers on Monday morning — Bill Belichick, Mike McCarthy, Bruce Arians and Dan Campbell were absent — 16 were either posing for that fraternity portrait for the first time or, in the cases of Lovie Smith, Ron Rivera and Doug Pederson, doing so for a new team.