The youth of the Chicago Cubs roster has always been something that has drawn a lot of attention to outsiders since the team began their turnaround in 2011. Theo Epstein made it a point to trade away older players and build up the team’s farm system with young, check that, VERY young, prospects with the hopes they’d eventually make it up to the big leagues.
Sure enough, one by one, the “baby Cubs” began to make their appearances on the team’s big league roster starting in 2012.
23-year-old Anthony Rizzo debuts in June of 2012.
21-year-old Javier Baez debuts in August of 2014.
22-year-old Kris Bryant debuts in April of 2015.
22-year-old Kyle Schwarber debuts in June of 2015.
21-year-old Addison Russell debuts in April 2015.
The youth of the team turned out to be a blessing as the majority of the players weren’t even born during some of the teams previous failures so it’s a great example of “ignorance is bliss.” All throughout the postseason last year, all the analysts talked about was the fact that the Cubs only issue would be their inexperience of playing on the big stage and as it turned out — they were completely wrong.
The five “baby Cubs” I mentioned above were the driving force to help lead the team to the World Series championship in 2016. The World Series win was SUCH a big deal that people still forget these guys are still kids. Nowhere can that be better seen than in Addison Russell’s new hobby, collecting Pokemon cards.
Jesse Rogers of ESPN wrote today about Russell’s love for the Japanese animated TV show which goes above and beyond most people’s love for television. Russell actually collects baseball-type cards of Pokemon characters and has his favorite players autograph them when the Cubs play them during the course of the season.
Let that sink in.
One of the best shortstops in Major League baseball collects cards of his favorite cartoon characters and then has his favorite baseball players sign them.
“I’ve signed a lot of baseball cards of myself, and I just thought it would be cool if professional athletes would sign Pokémon cards. I started collecting them more, and now I’m asking guys to sign them.”
Russell started collecting the cards this past off-season as a way to relate to his younger relatives. He understands the confusion on most people’s faces when they hear a grown man is collecting cartoon cards even if they are his own teammates.
Reigning NL MVP Kris Bryant looked at the sheet of Pokemon cards and said, “What are you doing? I loved it. I love everything about Addy. He’s a big kid.”
As of today, Russell has around 25 signatures of players including: Corey Seager, Kenley Jansen, Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, Jose Altuve, Jonathan Villar, and Corey Knebel. That’s not including the signatures he has from his Cubs teammates either.
Russell isn’t sure who he will ask next for a signed card but he’s anxious to get a few specific cards signed by his favorite players.
“I have some badass Pokémon cards that I need signed.”
If this isn’t a clear sign that the Cubs have some unbelievably skilled baseball players on their roster who just so happen to be large children, then I don’t know what is. Russell still isn’t sure what he’ll do when he gets all of his cards signed but said he may give the cards to his young son or he’s open to the possibility of trading some of the cards as well.
To get a better idea of what the Pokemon cards consist of, Randall Sanders has taken the liberty of creating his own “Cubs version” of Pokemon cards.
this is good content pic.twitter.com/Px9hNw31Rx
— Randall J. Sanders (@RandallJSanders) April 24, 2017
Good to see a three hit, 2 RBI night from Bryant tonight. pic.twitter.com/bHw9yUorBp
— Randall J. Sanders (@RandallJSanders) April 9, 2017
Jake Arrieta on the hill to try and reel in a series win today. pic.twitter.com/5domDW8WsD
— Randall J. Sanders (@RandallJSanders) April 9, 2017
Another solid outing on the part of Jon Lester. pic.twitter.com/FLnUMc3mD0
— Randall J. Sanders (@RandallJSanders) April 11, 2017
He's back and ready to educate again in 2017. pic.twitter.com/kTN1587WXQ
— Randall J. Sanders (@RandallJSanders) April 8, 2017
Making his season debut today… pic.twitter.com/eiLwR9Fo2j
— Randall J. Sanders (@RandallJSanders) April 6, 2017
I've updated Zobrist's card to reflect his walkup music this season. pic.twitter.com/8i5KVq7Y9C
— Randall J. Sanders (@RandallJSanders) April 18, 2017
The @Cubs really played the right card with that home run. pic.twitter.com/NGiUfnsoMJ
— Randall J. Sanders (@RandallJSanders) April 6, 2017
So there you go Pokemon fans, if you’re looking for a Pikachu, Jigglypuff, or Vulpix card you may want to reach out to Russell and see if you guys can work something out.
