This photo is courtesy of BCB reader tensionhead, who emailed it to me this morning. You still can't see anything much under all the plastic sheeting, but this gives you a view of it taken from one of the rooftops across from the right field bleachers.

It's also definitive proof that the Cubs are not building anything beyond the existing bleacher structure or raising the back walkway.

You can also see what appears to be some of the construction workers, either on a break, or more likely eating lunch, given that the scoreboard clock reads 12:10 (this photo was taken Friday, February 17).

Finally, this gives a better view of ... whatever that is covering the entire field. Looks like a tarp of some kind. Not exactly sure why the Cubs are doing that; I have never seen the field completely covered during the offseason before.

Click on the image to see a larger version. For an even larger version than that click here.

There's more...

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We all know the biggest - and saddest - news of the day. Hall of Fame catcher, and passionate lover of the game, Gary Carter passed away yesterday at 57. Our sincerest condolences go out to those who loved him.

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With pitchers and catchers scheduled to report in just two days, rather than another retro recap of a regular season game, I thought I'd share with you a recap of one memorable spring training game from 2004 -- a season we entered with quite a bit of optimism after the near-miss of 2003 and the acquisitions of players like Derrek Lee and Greg Maddux in the offseason.

The hero of the game in question -- indeed, the hero of that Cub camp -- was Scott McClain, who had the spring training of his (or almost anyone's) life: 16-for-48 with five doubles, six home runs and 16 RBI. For that, he got released at the end of camp, and didn't play at all during the 2004 season. The Cubs brought him back to spring camp in 2005; he played that year at Iowa, hitting .291/.358/.577 with 30 HR and 93 RBI. For that, he got a September callup in which he went 2-for-14.

McClain had some talent, but was 33 by the time he had that big year in Triple-A. Bryan LaHair, who has had a similar career track, is somewhat younger at 29. Maybe he'll do this year what McClain couldn't. The photo on this post was taken during that year's spring (although not during the game that's recapped here -- the game I'm linking to was a night game). You can tell right away it's a spring photo by the "71" on his back.

This site did not begin until 2005, but some time ago I was able to import my baseball-related posts from my old blog into the database here. Hope you enjoy this recap of the Cubs' 1-0 win over the Athletics on March 22, 2004. (Note: the link to the Yahoo recap to which I linked in that post is no longer active.)

This Sporting News article, one that kind of slipped in under the radar, indicates that Fox and MLB are going to be increasing the number of Saturday night prime-time games this year.

Why is this a bad thing? Read on:

Notwithstanding the clunky word "broadcasted" ("broadcast" would work just as well), this means that far more people will be blacked out of seeing their favorite team. This 1970s-style regionalization of televised baseball ignores the fact that the modern fan is used to -- most of the time -- being able to see his or her favorite team on TV, on a computer, and on iPads and other mobile devices.

Wait till you see what a Fox executive said about this.

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The latest from around MLB as players shake off the chocolate candy hangover or the pain of Valentine's Day rejection (bah - who's going to reject a pro ballplayer? Even Willie McGee found someone.) ...

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A report Monday evening on NBC5 in Chicago stated that the Cubs were "in talks" to play the 2013 season at the home of the White Sox, US Cellular Field, colloquially known as "The Cell".

This was quickly refuted in this examiner.com article and also by Fox Chicago. I confirmed this myself late Monday.

The Cubs have gone on record multiple times as saying that when renovations to Wrigley Field begin, that they would be done during the offseason and also during road trips during the season. At the moment, no announcement has been made and the last thing I heard, the target date for completion of renovations was 2016, not anything that would suggest that construction would start in 2013.

But what if the Cubs did decide, sometime in the future, that they'd rather play a year at the Cell and renovate Wrigley that way? After the jump, a few thoughts.

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