The Book Notification #𝘗𝘰𝘥𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵 covers the new release books from January 26th - February 1st 📚🎙️

𝗙𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 ✨
Dead Man's List by #LTRyan & #AndreGonzalez
Hooked by #CaitlinRother
The White Room Runs Red by #MattShaw

Listen online 🎧 🔗 Link in Comments
#newbooks #newbookreleases #bookstodon

Four weeks ago, I attended the Cubs game on July 23, 2025—the last day they would hold the best record in baseball.

The Chicago Cubs entered their matchup against the Kansas City Royals tied with Milwaukee for the best record in baseball at 60-41. Little did we know that July 23rd would mark the end of that brief moment at the top. What followed was a sweltering afternoon filled with wind-blown home runs, rookie milestones, and the kind of baseball memories that make scorekeeping an art form.

A scorching day at Wrigley

The National Weather Service issued an extreme heat warning with feels-like temperatures reaching 105-110°F. Adding to the conditions, 24 mph wind gusts were blowing straight out to the bleachers—a recipe for offensive fireworks.

The wind’s impact became immediately apparent when the game’s first batter sent a fly ball to right fielder Seiya Suzuki. What should have been a routine out instead became an error when the ball hit the pinky of Suzuki’s glove on the warning track. In 14 other ballparks, that would have been a home run.

Seiya’s redemption story

Suzuki’s early miscue carried extra weight given his history. Cubs fans remember his devastating error against Atlanta on September 26, 2023—a dropped routine fly ball that crushed the team’s playoff hopes and happened to occur during Ronald Acuña Jr.’s historic 40/70 season. Since then, Suzuki had been relegated to designated hitter duties.

This was his chance at redemption in right field. Instead, the very first batter exposed him again.

Eventually, he would score anyway on Vinnie Pasquantino’s home run with the wind. Pasquantino’s home run was legit. The wind didn’t need to help it.

Why was Seiya playing right field anyways? Well, Kyle Tucker was out with a sore knee. (Funny, on the card I wrote “Michael Tucker”—the journeyman outfielder from 1995 to 2006. Side note: Michael Tucker did play for the Cubs in 2001. Although he never played RF, but rather CF and LF)

Home runs by 23-year-old teammates

The game’s silver lining came from Chicago’s young core. Matt Shaw and Pete Crow-Armstrong both homered, marking the third time this season the 23-year-old duo went deep in the same game—a new Cubs franchise record.

The complete list of Cubs teammates (both age 23) homering in the same game:

• (3x) Pete Crow-Armstrong & Matt Shaw (6/7/2025, 7/19/2025, 7/23/2025)
• (2x) Albert Almora & Addison Russell (4/19/2017, 7/15/2017)
• (2x) Starlin Castro & Anthony Rizzo (7/9/2013, 7/31/2013)
• (1x) Christopher Morel & Nelson Velázquez (2022-08-08)
• (1x) Kris Bryant & Jorge Soler (2015-09-19)
• (1x) Anthony Rizzo & Junior Lake (2013-08-01)
• (1x) Byron Browne & Randy Hundley (1966-04-19)
• (1x) Augie Galan & Tuck Stainback (1935-07-11)
• (1x) Clay Bryant & Augie Galan (1935-06-13 game 2)

For perspective, the all-time record belongs to Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder, who accomplished the feat 11 times in 2007.

Apparently, many 23-year-old teammates have done this.

There is only one game where three teammates aged 23 years old hit a HR:
September 25, 1977: Andre Dawson, Larry Parrish, and Ellis Valentine each had one HR.

Matt Shaw’s home run

Shaw entered the All-Star break struggling (.198 average, .556 OPS), but had found his groove since, going 9-for-18 with three home runs. In the 7th inning, with the Cubs trailing 2-8, a fan behind us yelled, “Matt, you can do it!”

The very next pitch: home run.

As he circled the bases, they played “WHOOMP—THERE IT IS!” Hearing that song in 2025 is such a weird experience. I grew up with the 90s Bulls Dynasty. This was the anthem song for the Bulls winning their third championship in 1993. I just checked the dates.

• “Whoomp! (There It Is)” the song, was released on May 7, 1993.
• The single debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart on May 29, 1993.
• The 1993 NBA Finals happened on June 9 to 20th.
  Although, hmm, that’s quite a tight turnaround for the Bulls to start using the song just two weeks after it hit the Billboard Hot 100. But man, I remember that song being played ad nauseam when the Bulls were winning. Maybe I’m remembering their second three-peat of 1996, 1997, and 1998.

Anyways, this isn’t the 90s anymore. If they are trying to appeal to people who grew up with this song, then it needs to be played MUCH less. If we hear “Woomp there it is!” It should be in a slightly ironic, isn’t-this-weird-we-are-playing-this way. People shouldn’t have to be subjected to this “Check it to wreck it” (although I am a fan of old school rap from the 80s.)

Speaking of music, I did start to scrawl down the walkup music for each player. Partway through the game I noticed that they put the name of the song on the secondary jumbotron. I kinda wish I captured them all.

• Seiya Suzuki: “Flying B” by AK-69
• Nico Hoerner: “Places to Be” (I think the artist is Fred again?)
• Reese McGuire: “All for You” by Stick Figure

PCA’s home run

Crow-Armstrong’s 27th home run maintained his pace toward potential 40/40 status (he had 28 stolen bases entering the game). Despite the Cubs trailing 8-3 in the eighth inning, I found myself critiquing his approach to my dad: “PCA is swinging like he wants a home run. We don’t need a home run down by five—we need baserunners.”

Naturally, he promptly launched one over the wall.

He hits a HR. Ok, I’ll take it. His home run gave the Cubs 1% more chance of winning.

In total, there were six home runs in this game

The longest home runs

The hardest hit ball was none of the six home runs. It was Vinnie Pasquantino’s double in the 3rd inning. 109.3 MPH

The next hardest hit ball also was not a home run. It was a lineout by Salvador Perez (107.3)

The third hardest hit ball is a homerun—but not by any of the Royals. It was Pete Crow-Armstrong’s HR (106.8)

It’s curious that PCA’s home run was the hardest hit home run, yet it was only 5th in distance. Some of the Royals’ home runs were assisted by the wind.

Wind-assisted home runs

Tyler Tolbert’s home run is normal out 82% of the time. But since the wind blew the ball out, it was a home run. The combination of 94.2 exit velocity with a 31° launch angle results in a hit only 18% of the time, because 82% of the time it will land in the outfield for an easy out. But since the wind blew the ball out, it was a home run.

Same with Salvador Perez’s HR. 92% of the time, that would be an out. That had only an 8% chance of being a hit.

As it goes with the wind at Wrigley.

Some interesting articles about wind-assisted home runs:

• Wind effect: These ballparks, players were most impacted by the weather (February 7th, 2025)
• Weather Applied Metrics in Major League Baseball | by Clay Nunnally | MLB Technology Blog (March 6, 2023)

The Vinnie Pasquantino Show

Who? This guy hits two home runs. I mean, he can’t be THAT bad, because he’s batting third in the lineup. This is his 4th year in the majors, all for the Royals.

Ok, so he’s decent. He also was 3rd for AB per SO in the AL in 2024. That’s cool. I love players who don’t strike out.

There’s also a quirky thing the Royals do for Pasquantino. The Royals organization celebrates each Pasquantino base hit with a Sasquatch-costumed employee walking across the left field roof—a nod to his nickname “Pasquatch” (Pasquantino + Sasquatch). His scraggly beard certainly fits the part.

Pasquantino played for the Italian team in the World Baseball Classic in 2023, and plans to play again for them in 2026. Over 5 games, he was 4-for-20, .200 AVG, .473 OPS, 0 HR, 7 SO. (He led team Italy in strikeouts.)

So far, this game has been Pasquantino’s best game ever. (3-for-4, 2 HR, 1 double, 1 walk)
The next closest would be July 4, 2025 (3-for-5, 2 HR)

Biggest impact plays

Pick to click

Back in the 1990s the White Sox TV announcers would each make their “Pick to Click” from the White Sox roster. I like to continue that tradition with both teams.

• Royals: Salvador Perez (with Bobby Witt out, you have to go with the future HOFer)
• Cubs: Pete Crow-Armstrong

I didn’t make these selections as my official picks for Beat the Streak. I was carrying a 23-game streak and didn’t want to make any selections until there was a larger sample size after the All-Star break.

The Cubs design of the scorecard

Anytime I would erase some pencil marks on the scorecard, the resulting area would turn blue. Very odd. My eraser is not blue. Why would the page turn blue when I erase it?

The Cubs designed this scorecard with a fine red/yellow tint to warm up the overall color. Now that I scanned my scorecard in high-res, I can confirm: the Cubs went with blue-white paper but printed a fake warmer color over the entire card.

Whenever I erased something on my scorecard, the inks that made up the warmer color got erased, leaving behind a bluer sheet underneath.

New scorecard techniques: sandpaper

This is the first time I’ve sanded a scorecard—with real sandpaper. I’ve previously worn down an eraser trying to remove ink, but I really wanted some completely gone, so I turned to fine-grit sandpaper.

I completely sanded off the top of the scorecard. The original design had the team names really big, which felt redundant since the team names already exist at each half of the scorecard. Plus, I wanted the space at the top for my header text about the heat warning.

Original top

See how “Kansas City Royals” repeats itself twice? That’s silly. After sanding off the top part, I had more room to make the text really strong. I was going for a sort of 80s brush style.

Gameday stamp

There are people who get their scorecards stamped with an official ballpark stamp. It’s so cool to have your scorecard authenticated.

Before the game, I looked up the passport stamp validation at Wrigley. You’re supposed to buy the official passport book to get it stamped. But I wanted to see if they’d stamp my scorecard. The cheapest passport book is $20 online (+$5 shipping). I’d buy the book and ask them to stamp my scorecard instead.

Someone on the Baseball Passport Facebook Group said recently: “They have them in the left field team store, but they are less expensive if you go on the website”

Once we got to the park, I checked out the left field store to see what the situation was with the stamps. First, the store was confusing. The signage above the store said something like LIDS or Nike or some brand. The sign didn’t indicate that it was a Cubs store, but instead it appeared to be some branded store. Looking around the left field concourse, this was the only store in the area, so I went inside.

It’s a tiny store with the typical stuff. I didn’t see any PassPort books, so I asked the ladies behind the counter if they do the stamps for scorecards. They sighed a little and said, “yeah, we usually only stamp the passport books, but we can stamp your scorecard.”

They were so nice that I said, “You know what? I’d like to get one of the PassPort books, just to make it legit.” I bought the cheapest one for $25—the same price you’d pay online with shipping.

They seemed confused that I wanted the scorecard stamped, not the book. They were very considerate about placement. It definitely felt like they weren’t used to stamping scorecards. Stamp it at the top? Nawww, not enough space. Down here at the bottom? Hrmmm, about here in the middle on the side? There’s some space there. Sure. That sounds good!

So now whenever I go to an MLB ballpark, I’ll bring my PassPort book and ask them to stamp my scorecard instead.

New techniques: including player’s age

This is the first time I’ve included the ages of all the players. Recently I started making a scorecard for the “Ryne Sandberg Game” from 1984. Looking up stats for the players, I saw their ages and it was striking to realize how some players were quite old, and others quite young.

I like this tidbit on the scorecard, because it’s handy to see the player’s age—without having to look it up.

This touches on my philosophy with scorecards. I don’t believe in making scorecards hard to read. (LOL. I know, this coming from a guy who overloads his scorecard with so much information that it can be hard to read.) But really. A scorecard should be enjoyable to read. Not some hieroglyphics that you have to interpret.

E9 doesn’t do much for me on its own. Who is 9? The right fielder. Who was playing right for the Cubs that day? It takes too much time to figure that out. Just put the name on there. “Seiya drops ball.” Boom, the card is much more informative and easy to read.

Actually, to tease the Sandberg scorecard that I have coming up. That scorecard introduces a new format that I’ve been working on for a long time that really shows how runners advance on the basepath. Oh man. I’m so excited about it.

Anyhow, so I put ages on there so we can easily see where a player is at in their career. It’s hard to believe that PCA and Matt Shaw are only 23 years old! Years from now, it’ll be nice to remember that.

Scorecard art

Focusing on PCA

I’m pretty pleased with how the PCA drawing turned out. One thing I’ve learned about scorecards is that it helps to have one main focus image. Coming out of the game, the focus felt like how the Cubs got absolutely destroyed by a mediocre team. They hit four home runs against us, and we never had a chance.

But I’d rather focus on a positive aspect from the Cubs’ angle. After all, we got to see two Cubs home runs. That’s pretty cool. They paled in comparison to the Royals’ home runs, but in most games, I would gladly take two Cubs home runs.

Digging further, I uncovered the 23-year-old aspect. I didn’t find that anywhere else online.

Matt Shaw has been the hotter player lately, but he’s not nearly the star that PCA has become this year. At this point in the season, PCA is a superstar. Pete Crow-Armstrong led all National League outfielders with 3,021,265 All-Star votes.

He homers, he steals, he’s breaking defensive records. It’s amazing what Crow-Armstrong is doing this season.

Hence, I made PCA giant on the card. 27 isn’t any landmark home run. In fact, four weeks later, that 27th home run is his most recent.

Circles

The sun forms a circle in the upper left groups together the headline. The circle from the GameDay PassPort stamp also mimics the circle from the sun.

Flames

I used flames in the head warning header. And repeated the flames on the strikeout guess. And some gentle flames on PCA’s header.

Cloud and scoreboard flags

One of my favorite combinations is how the windy cloud works with the flags on the scoreboard.

• The cloud tells us it was a windy day.
• The scoreboard flags tells us that the Cubs have the best record in baseball

They work together, because at Wrigley we look to these flags to see if the wind is blowing out.

Ticket

Years ago I started writing down our seat location by using a ticket stub. The shape of the stub is nice for separating out this bit of information. Thinking back, I should have included a description of where we are sitting, becuase who knows what section 209 means? (it’s third base side, under the upper deck. Row 6 is the same row as the poles holding up the upper deck)

Food

In the 8th inning, my brother and his kids went to get us ice cream. Remember, this is a hot 105° day. Thankfully, we were in the shaded part of the park, but it was still hot. Ice cream sounded good.

Heh. Well, when they came back, they were carefully balancing Cubs helmets of ice cream, melting all down their legs. But most of the ice cream was still intact. The part that became ice cream soup was good for a good milkshake.

Here’s a weird vertical pano of Wrigley Field, my ice cream, and my scorecard.

After the game, we drove my dad back to the south side of Chicago. We got dinner at Horse Thief Hollow Brewery on Western Avenue (where the famous Irish South Side parade goes). It’s always amusing to eat at a restaurant after a Cubs game when we’re all wearing our Cubs stuff, especially in “enemy” territory with the South Side White Sox.

I ordered the Double Stack Smash burger.

Starting pitcher Colin Rea

The starting pitcher for the Cubs, Colin Rea, was a new name to me. Here are the teams he’s played for, in order:

Padres, Marlins, Padres, Cubs, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Brewers, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Brewers, Cubs.

My goodness. This guy likes to return to former teams. The team in Japan made sense. He joined the team on June 3. His wife gave birth in late July. He didn’t really want to go back to Japan and leave his newborn baby. So he left the Hawks. A couple of weeks later, he signed with the Brewers.

Ryne Sandberg

Also, I didn’t publish this scorecard immediately. I finished the art five days after the game. That same day, Ryne Sandberg passed away. It felt odd posting this random scorecard during a time when we were all focused on Sandberg.

Instead, I started to make a scorecard of “The Sandberg Game” on my iPad. WOW. I love working on the iPad. It enables me to fit more notes into the card. That scorecard will be published hopefully soon. I still have to listen to the radio archive of the game, so I can add more notes.

Why this scorecard matters

Sure, the Cubs got shellacked 8-4 by a team that had no business hitting four home runs against them. But this scorecard introduced techniques I’ll use for years: player ages for historical context, sandpaper for design modifications, and official authentication stamps.

Most importantly, it captured Shaw and PCA’s franchise record—something that didn’t show up in any game recap or highlight reel. That’s exactly why I keep score. The real stories hide in the details.

https://www.57hits.com/july-23-2025-scorecard

#FunWithBaseballScorecards #MattShaw #PeteCrowArmstrong #RyneSandberg #SalvadorPerez #SeiyaSuzuki #VinniePasquantino

A huge subset of #Cubs fans is furious the Cubs didn't spend more this offseason, but I'm not one of them.

They tried for Ohtani, but he was dead-set on the Dodgers. They were in on Yamamoto but a) same issue & b) wowza contract.

After that, who would they break the bank for? #Bellinger ? His swing data wasn't great even in his comeback year. I can't see giving him $200MM+ when they have so much talent coming up in CF and 1B.

Snell? No #MLB team wants to give #BlakeSnell the money he's asking for either. Same for #JordanMontgomery. The risk/reward of their asks is not good. #MattChapman maybe? With #MattShaw nearly ready?

I'd rather the Cubs roll with what they have and save the bullets for #JuanSoto or #AlexBregman or #CorbinBurnes . Save the money for a clear upgrade, not a marginal one.

Two of the most consistent postseason teams in #baseball are the #Astros and the #Atlanta team. Each rarely signs top FAs but makes up for it with their farm. I'm OK if they're the model.