O huzzah. The season starts. Today is the first day of baseball, as the Chicago Cubs head out to defend their World Series championship title. Sorry, I had to add that last part since I've never had the chance before. There's been a lot of talk in Chicago and among baseball analysts about whether the Cubs will repeat this year, and honestly -- I couldn't care less. I certainly hope they win...I always hope they win every game, and hoped that through the past decades...but with winning after 108 years, everything at this point is gravy. Bonus material. They won once in my lifetime (and pretty much every's lifetime), so life is good. I'm okay with that. But as for repeating, here's a follow-up video to a fun one from last year. However with a bit of backstory first to put it in perspective. Kris Bryant (who won the Rookie of the Year award two years ago, and followed it last year with the National League Most Valuable Player award) and Anthony Rizzo (who finished fourth in the MVP voting) are team leaders and best friends on the Chicago Cubs. The result of which is that they've become known jokingly as "Bryzzo." So, Major League Baseball came up with a funny ad campaign about the fictitious Bryzzo Souvenir Company. The point of the fake enterprise is that Bryant and Ryzzo have a two-man business where they sell souvenirs of the home runs that they hit. So, as a refresher first, here was the original video that MLB made. (That's Bryant on the left with the beard, and Rizzo on...oh, you can figure it out.) And that was Cubs manager Joe Maddon popping at the end. Anyway, as I noted, MLB decided to do a new Bryzzo ad and build on things from the year before. This time, though, there are a bunch of "guest stars" in it, as things with the company have apparently expanded. If you know the Cubs and music pretty well, you'll likely recognize everyone, but since most won't I'll give a Who's Who after the video (and explain some of the jokes). Okay, here then is the Playbill program guide for who appears in the video. The first employee sitting at the desk is Addison Russell, the team's young shortstop. (By the way, the street address of Wrigley Field where the Cubs play is...1060 Addison.) Following that, taking orders for Puerto Rico is Javier Baez, the second baseman. The player trying to come up with a new slogan and impose himself into it is Ben Zobrist, who won the World Series Most Valuable Player award last year. The fellow writing the new Bryzzo jingle is lead man for Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder, who is a major Cubs fan (and who wrote the glorious song which I've posted here, "Some Day We'll Go All the Way." The player shining his plaque as the first Bryzzo to win "Employee of the Month" other than either of the Bryzzo Boys is Kyle Schwarber, who is known for hitting prodigious home runs, but was injured almost all of last year, before coming back in the post-season to become a hero in the World Series, and now returns for the new season. And the intern at the end is David Ross. The joke here is that he was the oldest player on the team last season, known as 'Grampa Rossy,' who retired at the end of the season. And if you watch Dancing with the Stars, this year he's the first major league baseball player to appear on the show.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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