Happy Thursday, everyone! Lighter day on the news front, but we still have some fun things to share, including some memories of the day 10 years ago Chicago celebrated their biggest win of all time, as well as an interview with Alex Bregman about the work that went into helping him win a Gold Glove. We also look at what’s going on with Javier Assad and what the Cubs next moves might be.
So let’s just jump into today’s news.
- Happy anniversary to the day the city of Chicago turned blue in honor of the Cubs’ World Series victory.
- The Cubs have declined their option on Javier Assad. The pitcher was signed to a one-year deal last season for $1.8 million, with a second-year option of $3.3 million. At this time, he remains under club control and could stick around, as the Cubs are in dire need of starting pitchers for 2027, but it remains to be seen if he will continue with the team and what his 2027 salary would be.
- Jordan Bastian spoke to Alex Bregman following his Gold Glove winto ask how he’s still finding way to improve defensively. Bregman said, “There’s always room for improvement in every phase of the game…And every year, I’m trying to get a little bit better in every aspect of it. For me, defensively, there were some things that I could tweak that could improve my defense. We had identified those in Spring Training and got to work on them.” Bregman now has the potential to become a Platinum Glove winner, but his focus will remain on staying sharp ahead of next season.
Food For Thought
Have you heard of a personal curriculum? I know everyone who hated school just ran for the hills and stopped reading, but bear with me if you can, because this is such an interesting concept. We are living in an era of short attention spans, lowered critical thinking, dwindling imagination, and people using technology to think for themselves. The average American spends about five hours a day looking at their phones. I will save you the statistics about what phone dependency and social media use are doing to our concentration, our memory, and even how they can increase our risk of dementia. Instead, I want to focus on a movement that aims to counter our increased use of social media, doomscrolling, and the other bad digital habits that keep us from using our time to improve ourselves.
Right now there are a handful of trends (I do see the irony of writing about social media trends telling us to stop using social media; don’t worry) that offer methods to engage our brains more and use our phones less. Developing a personal curriculum is precisely what it sounds like: picking a handful of topics or skills you would like to dive deeper into and then putting together a monthly plan for how you will learn more about those things. For example, perhaps you have always been curious about jazz music. Your personal curriculum could be to listen to some of the most popular jazz albums of all time, and then read a book about the history of jazz. Maybe you have developed an interest in the Wild West era of US history. You could watch YouTube videos on that time period and pick a few classic Western films to watch (I have suggestions if you’re interested). The entire idea is to engage your mind and curiosity. If books aren’t your thing, try documentaries or podcasts. Don’t want to learn about history? Maybe you pick up a new hobby instead and watch tutorials online about how to do your new craft. The sky really is the limit, because you can choose to learn about anything you want. Earlier this year I decided to broaden my knowledge of film, so I started watching every movie on BFI’s Top 250 movies of all time. The process will likely take me all through next year, but it’s been very rewarding to learn more about movies along the way.
Want something a little easier? Try brain stacking! Brain stacking involves setting aside about an hour of your day whenever it fits your schedule to spend time on activities that help engage your brain. This can look like five to ten minutes of journaling, followed by brain games like Sudoku or a crossword, followed by fifteen minutes of non-fiction reading, followed by fiction reading or perhaps crafting. I do mine in the morning and mix in some Duolingo language learning. The idea is to make yourself focus on activities that keep your brain activated and most importantly, focused on something other than your phone.
So, if you’ve been thinking to yourself that you’re spending too much time on your phone, perhaps this could be the motivation to try something a little different! I learned I’m not as bad at Murdle as I thought I was!
