Do You Know Which Cubs Player Gave A Naked Speech Before Game 7?
The answer is Anthony Rizzo. Because of course it is.
Tom Verducci is a writer for Sports Illustrated and has a book coming out, The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse. Verducci got this nugget from covering the team during the World Series:
An hour before the seventh game of the World Series, Rizzo stripped off all his clothes, cranked the theme from Rocky on the clubhouse stereo... jumped on top of a coffee table, and began quoting lines from the movie and throwing his best shadow-boxing punches. Pitcher Hector Rondon, joining in on the hijinks, picked up an aerosol can of shoe cleaner and sprayed it in the direction of Rizzo's groin.
Startled and angered, Rizzo stopped and yelled, "What the heck, man!" He cut the music and stormed off toward the showers to clean off the spray. "T'm thinking, Dang, what's he doing?" Ross said. "We can't have this negative vibe right before the game. I go by there. I can tell he's a little irritated."
Ten minutes went by. Rizzo finally emerged from the shower. He walked back silently to his locker with a towel around his waist. The room was quiet and uneasy.
Ross walked up to Rizzo and broke the silence.
"Hey! IT's not how many times you get knocked down...it's how many times you get up!"
Rizzo chuckled. "You know what?" he said. "You're right!" Said Ross, "He rips the towel off, runs up, turns the music on again, and he jumps back on the coffee table and starts doing the Rocky motions again."
Just baseball players doing wacky naked stuff. You know how baseball is.
This is weird right? I'm as big a Cubs fan as there is but naked Rocky monologues an hour before the biggest game of your life is an interesting move. But what do I know? I've never played in the big leagues. If it takes a different player quoting overrated 80s movies (don't @ me) in the buff gets you a World Series then let's get all these guys a copy of the Karate Kid (I said don't @ me) or maybe Ghostbusters (I'm serious) and let their relief pitcher blast everyone in the crotch with IcyHot. I don't have to watch it so I don't care.
The moral of this story is that Joe Maddon is the greatest manager in the world. You think this kind of fun ever happens in the Cardinals clubhouse? Not a chance. The unofficial baseball police will make sure everyone treats the game with the respect they think it deserves. In related news I hate the Cardinals.
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