As Cubs players reported for Spring Training Saturday, new President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein stressed a collectively-written "Cubs Way" manual as a "way to get the entire system on the same page," according to Paul Sullivan of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Epstein called it a "living, breathing thing" that will grow every year, emphasizing the team's philosophy on playing the game." He said, "The Cubs way really boils down to the people, the players, obviously, but then all the scouts, all the people in the minor leagues, here in the big leagues. It's more than words on a page. It comes down to how deep we dig to get connected to players, to teach the game the right way, how much we care, how committed we are, how we treat each other in the front office, the coaches, the players, how hard we work" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/19). In Chicago, Gordon Wittenmyer noted in the wake of sexual-assault allegations against SS Starlin Castro, the Cubs "plan to bring in experts from Northeastern University’s Center for Sport in Society to speak to minor-leaguers and big-leaguers about conduct away from the ballpark." Epstein said, "They’ve had a lot of experience dealing with professional athletes, just giving them the right tools to deal with situations off the field, emphasizing not only the right decisions to make but the right values with which to conduct our careers and themselves off the field" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 2/19).
NO MOVIE PLANS: The CHICAGO TRIBUNE's Sullivan noted Epstein "hasn't seen 'Moneyball' and isn't interested in getting it on Netflix." In fact, Epstein "still seemed peeved that inside information was released in the book." He said Saturday, "I think 'Moneyball' has become kind of a loaded term. That's not exactly what we do. We're just kind of trying to teach the game the right way. I wasn't a huge fan when certain proprietary information was made available to the public in the first place (in the best-selling book). Instead of a handful of clubs knowing certain things, within a year [or] two, 30 clubs knew it. It's not my cup of tea. I think it's great that is sounds like they made a really good movie and a lot of people got entertained. That's terrific. But it's baseball time, not movie time" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/19).
