As the Chicago Cubs endure their postseason run they're being careful not to mess their mojo. On the other hand, the Milwaukee Brewers are preparing for 2016 as they continue to add to their front office personnel.
Cubs' rookie Kyle Schwarber has three home runs for Chicago during the postseason with his most recent one coming in Game 4. That blast was estimated to have traveled 438 feet and it gave the Cubs a 6-4 lead, which ended up being the final score on Tuesday as the team advanced to their first NLCS since 2003.
Check out his home run below:
That ball landed on the top of the right field video board at Wrigley Field and the Cubs are now apparently superstitious about the whole occurrence.
"A Cubs employee was sent to retrieve the ball Wednesday morning, and a source said the team verified it was the actual Schwarber ball through an MLB postseason watermark on it. It will be officially authenticated by MLB today," writes Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune.
"The Cubs have returned it to its original location on top of the board and will leave it there until their postseason run has concluded.
"The source said the Cubs will decide what to do with the ball after the season but wanted to leave it there for now as a memento of the Game 4 win. The Cubs are building a plexiglass case to preserve it from the elements, and will place it on top of the ball Wednesday afternoon."
Here are some pictures of the ball and team employees up on the video board:
This will surely be an interesting storyline if the Cubs manage to end their 107-year World Series drought.
As for one of the Cubs' NL Central rivals, the Milwaukee Brewers are watching the playoffs from their couch, but they've been making sweeping changes to their front office as the organization hopes to instill a new philosophy and get back on track.
First they hired the 30-year-old David Stearns as their new general manager in September, who is already making big changes to the front office. On Wednesday Stearns removed assistant GM Gord Ash and farm director Reid Nichols from their roles with the organization, according to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
He then hired Tampa Bay Rays director of player personnel Matt Arnold as the Brewers' new assistant GM, the team's Twitter account noted earlier today. Arnold was also a candidate for the Brewers' GM position before they hired Stearns.
It's Stearns' first hire as GM.
"I am thrilled to bring Matt on board," Stearns said a statement, via MLB.com. "Matt has touched nearly every aspect of baseball operations during his impressive career. He has the ability to impact our organization across the entire baseball operations spectrum and will be an integral part of our operation."
