Is This Thing Still On?

 Hey, remember me?

This place sure is dusty and covered in world wide cob webs... how long has been it been?  Jesus - my last post was in June... I missed a whole (ish) season of baseball.  Man, time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister.

Well, I'm left to ask myself, what might have caused such a long absence?  My answer is threefold.  First, a general dissatisfaction with the sport.  Between minor league baseball being nuked, labor strife wreaking havoc on baseball's future, and rooting for a directionless team seemingly ticketed for decline while stuck in a Groundhog Day-like state of mediocrity, it's been hard to feel enthused about my favored sport.  Although, I will say that despite some negative connotations, MLB's long-belated recognition of the Negro Leagues as being officially Major League caliber has perked my enthusiasm up a little bit.

Furthermore, there's the whole chaotic purgatory that is the year 2020.  Between the heated Presidential election, the coup attempt by the world's most sore loser that is somehow still ongoing, and - y'know - the raging pandemic that continues to spread like wildfire across the world, but even more powerfully in the only first world nation that thinks science is for wussies.  While we're on that note, I might as well mention that I just tested positive for COVID-19 and am now quarantined away from the world.  I've been as responsible as possible; however, having to work in four different buildings as part of my current employment has left me extremely exposed.  Thankfully, my symptoms are pretty mild - it mostly feels as though I just have a prolonged head cold.  Although, I have lost my senses of smell and taste, which figures because I have nothing better to do than eat my feelings.  

I suppose I'll have to settle for the next best way to spend my time - blogging about baseball cards.  After all, I've missed covering a bunch of new additions to the Cubs All-Time Roster while I was away, seeing as the 2020 season somehow ended up happening, despite the best efforts of the Marlins and Cardinals.  While I wasn't blogging, I was still passively collecting and I am pretty much up to date at this point.  The expanded rosters created a whole bunch of new Cubs, I might as well take this opportunity to document them.

I think I'll go one by one, in (approximately) the order the players were added to the active roster, starting... tomorrow.

Why drag my feet after all this time already taken off?  That brings me to the third reason Wrigley Roster Jenga has been dormant for so long - my wife and I welcome our first child into the world this summer and, unsurprisingly, he's been a bit of distraction.  Needless to say, 2020 was a stressful year to go through the whole childbirth process; but, at least I can say something wonderful did happen during this year of otherwise unrelenting frustration.  Both Rowan and his mother are doing quite well, though we are all three battling that damn virus, at the moment.

Also - sidebar - Rowan definitely wasn't name AFTER Cubs reliever Rowan Wick; although, I might have discovered that I liked the way the moniker sounded while listening to Cubs' broadcasts during the hurler's Wrigley tenure.  Don't tell mom.

Anyway, I'm going to use the last few minutes of the kid's nap to sort through my binders and get my upcoming posts ready.  See ya'll tomorrow!