The Cubs’ 2021 season will forever be defined by the 11-game losing streak that changed the direction of the franchise. But that skid, even though it was extremely consequential and set the stage for what the roster looks like now, is far from the only dubious run this year.

On Sunday, the Cubs’ losing made more history. By losing 9-1 to the Royals, the Cubs dropped a franchise-record 13th straight game at home, besting a mark set by the 1994 team that ended up 49-64.

That bygone roster with Sammy Sosa, Mark Grace and 57 games of Ryne Sandberg before his first retirement had the good fortune of their season being cut short in the middle of August by the strike. The current group will enjoy no such luck, and will have to finish a lost season while trying to evaluate players during a non-competitive stretch run.

“You’re just looking for good baseball players that can sustain consistency and success,” manager David Ross said. “Then you put the pieces around and you trust that each individual player’s going to be the version of themselves you saw.”

Paying customers at Wrigley Field – at least the ones cheering for the Cubs that are still invested in the final score – haven’t seen much to be happy about recently. Since July 26 when the Cubs picked up their most recent home victory thanks to Javy Baez’s game-winning hit off the Reds’ Amir Garrett, they’ve been outscored 99-33 at Clark and Addison.

In front of a disinterested crowd of 29,640, Sunday was more of the same.

Trying to avoid getting swept by a Royals team that started the day 14 games below .500, Alec Mills and the Cubs bullpen combined to let Kansas City score two runs in four straight innings, a string that was broken by Adrian Sampson’s scoreless seventh. Mills, who was drafted by the Royals in 2012, allowed seven runs (six earned) and 11 hits over four innings.

Kansas City finished with 16 hits.

The Cubs’ lone run came in the fourth when Matt Duffy’s single brought in Ian Happ. But all that did was cut the Royals’ lead to 5-1 as the countdown to the Cubs’ record-breaking defeat was already underway.

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Before Sunday’s game against the Royals, manager David Ross was asked how long he expected Nico Hoerner to be on his rehab assignment.

“We’re going to wait and make sure he gets through today and then we’ll see if he can get through tomorrow and then we’ll see if he gets through the next day,” Ross said. “When he looks healthy, we’ll bring him back up.”

Unfortunately, Ross’ caution was prescient.

Recovering from a right oblique strain, Hoerner began his rehab stint Sunday at Single-A South Bend but left the game in the middle of his third-inning at-bat after an awkward-looking swing. The Cubs said Hoerner felt increased tension along his right oblique and took himself out as a precaution, and the team will reassess Monday.

Following a stay in South Bend, Hoerner was ticketed for Triple-A Iowa before coming back to the Cubs, where the plan was for him to play shortstop.

“Look how fast he picked up second base and how special he was there,” Ross said. “I have no doubt in my mind that he can be a big-league shortstop on a regular basis. If he can stay healthy and on the field, he’s a really big piece to this team moving forward.”

Staying power
Entering Sunday’s game against the Royals, Patrick Wisdom’s 20 homers led all National League rookies, a total that ties him with the 1993 Marlins’ Orestes Destrade for the NL record for homers in a season by a rookie 29 or older. Wisdom has gotten a chance and run with it, putting himself squarely in the picture for the 2022 Cubs.

Perhaps most importantly, Wisdom’s been able to produce even as opposing pitchers have made adjustments.

“It’s who he is. He’s got real thunder in his hands… when he touches the baseball it jumps,” Ross said. “The more contact he makes the more he gets familiar with the pitching staffs, the divisions and the league and how guys pitch him and making his proper adjustments. I think that he’ll continue to even get better than he’s doing now.”

What about Willson?
Ross said Willson Contreras (right knee sprain) is doing well but not moving 100%. Before Sunday’s game, Contreras got some work in, testing the knee (with a brace) running the bases. As for what else he’s doing, Ross said Contreras is doing some catching but not blocking just yet.

When Contreras returns, it might be as a designated hitter first. The Cubs visit the White Sox this weekend before going to Minnesota to see the Twins, potentially giving Contreras a chance to DH.

Responding to Matheny
Royals manager Mike Matheny was upset about Saturday’s 34-minute weather delay, one that didn’t include a lot of rain but did mess with the flow of pitcher Kris Bubic, whose no-hit bid was broken up after play resumed.

Cubs spokesman Julian Green explained that if there’s lightning within five miles of the stadium, the team will clear the seating bowl, which happened Saturday. If there’s lightning within three miles, the playing field will be cleared, which also occurred as Green said there was a strike a mile from Wrigley.

“The safety of the players on the field supersedes anything that is going on at the field at the time,” Green said.

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White Sox manager Tony La Russa went out of his way to lament his decision to remove Craig Kimbrel from Friday’s 7-5 win over the Rays Friday. It kind of took the joy out of the victory, he said.

Kimbrel, an eight-time All-Star characterized by La Russa as a Hall of Fame closer, was anything but joyous about being pulled but said he and La Russa talked it over and are moving on.

“We’ve spoken since the other day and gotten things talked out,” Kimbrel said Sunday before the Sox played the Rays at Tropicana Field. “And I told him how I felt, and he told me how he felt. We move on and get ready to play the next day. That’s part of this game.”

Acquired at the trade deadline to give the Sox two of the best closers in the game, Kimbrel has pitched mostly in the eighth inning with Liam Hendriks handling the ninth, accepting any role La Russa gives him. Since coming from the Cubs, Kimbrel has underwhelmed allowing five runs over nine appearances covering 81/3 innings for a 4.49 ERA. Two of the eight hits allowed were home runs.

On Friday, Kimbrel’s first seven pitches were balls, putting La Russa on edge. After Kevin Kiermaier lined out, Kimbrel struck out Mike Zunino, but not before a stolen base and wild pitch. That’s when La Russa took the ball from Kimbrel and went to lefty Aaron Bummer, who gave up two hits and two walks and recorded one out.

“There are going to be things that happen that sometimes you agree with or disagree with,” Kimbrel said. “But if you can talk about it after the fact and get things worked out, that’s always a positive. I would take it as a positive because we talked, got things worked out and move forward from there. I’m not going to be upset and carry it over into my next outing or the next day or anything like that. We had a great conversation.”

La Russa suggested after the game that he put Kimbrel in an unfair spot, not having pitched since four days previously, and having been away from the team for a day because of his grandfather’s death. The next day he said “it was a win that I didn’t enjoy because he got the wrong message about respect and confidence.”

“I know how great he is,” La Russa said. “And this is a unique situation, to have those two closers, we’re trying to work through them.”

Kimbrel who was dominant with a 0.49 ERA in 39 games, is adapting to a new environment and searching for his fastball command. Pitching coach Ethan Katz expects it will arrive sooner rather than later.

“I mean, Craig Kimbrel’s fine,” Katz said. “He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball with a great track record. He’s pitching in high-leverage situations, he’s gonna be fine. He’s one of our main guys. He’s going to be a big contributor down the road for us, and down the stretch.”

“Some of the things I’ve been getting beat with is a little bit of command issues,” Kimbrel said, “and kind of the way I’ve been spinning my fastball. But luckily I’ve been able to use my curveball really effectively in those outings until I find my fastball.”

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Curie coach Mike Oliver has done it again. The Team Rose Classic has become the best two-day high school basketball event in the area over the past decade. This season’s match ups carry on the tradition. Oliver has assembled a schedule with a nice mix of suburban, city and private schools to face off over two days at Mount Carmel.

The shootout is one of the few high school basketball events that still attracts a large numbers of college coaches. This year’s event is loaded with college prospects and top-ranked teams.

Oliver released the schedule on Sunday.

Saturday, Dec. 11

Riverside-Brookfield vs. Romeoville, 11 a.m.

Westinghouse vs. Oak Forest, 12:30

Lincoln-Way East vs. North Lawndale, 2

Evanston vs. Bloom, 3:30

Hyde Park vs. Yorkville Christian, 5

Glenbard West vs. Hillcrest, 6:30

Sunday, Dec. 12

Mount Carmel vs. Lane, 11 a.m.

Leo vs. Tinley Park, 12:30

De La Salle vs. Farragut, 2

Orr vs. Joliet West, 3:30

Brother Rice vs. Curie, 5

Notre Dame vs. Clark, 6:30

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When Major League Baseball announced the Cubs are playing in the 2022 Field of Dreams Game, one of the players on the social-media graphic was Patrick Wisdom.

Not bad for a guy who had played 43 major-league games before this year.

Entering Sunday’s game against the Royals, Wisdom’s 20 homers led all National League rookies, a total that ties him with the 1993 Marlins’ Orestes Destrade for the NL record for homers in a season by a rookie 29 or older. Wisdom has gotten a chance and run with it, putting himself squarely in the picture for the 2022 Cubs, not to mention league-wide promotional materials.

“I think it’s just a guy that’s gotten to a point in his career that he’s taken advantage of an opportunity,” manager David Ross said. “I think when you get real opportunity to play on a regular basis and you’ve been through the roller-coaster of a professional player and the ups and downs and getting to know yourself a little bit better, and understanding that [in] the baseball season there’s going to be really high moments and really low moments, and it’s about sustaining the good ones when you can and trying to shorten the bad ones when they come.”

Perhaps most importantly, Wisdom’s been able to produce even as opposing pitchers have made adjustments.

“It’s who he is. He’s got real thunder in his hands… when he touches the baseball it jumps,” Ross said. “The more contact he makes the more he gets familiar with the pitching staffs, the divisions and the league and how guys pitch him and making his proper adjustments. I think that he’ll continue to even get better than he’s doing now.”

Hoerner’s role
Currently rehabbing a right oblique strain, it’s not entirely clear when Nico Hoerner will return to the Cubs. What’s more obvious is where he’ll play when he does come back to the Cubs.

“He’ll play [shortstop] when he comes back,” Ross said.

Ross said the Cubs would “sprinkle” him in around if needed, but shortstop will be Hoerner’s primary home. Hoerner has played shortstop before at the big-league level, most notably when he filled in for an injured Javy Baez late in the 2019 season.

“Look how fast he picked up second base and how special he was there,” Ross said. “I have no doubt in my mind that he can be a big-league shortstop on a regular basis. If he can stay healthy and on the field, he’s a really big piece to this team moving forward.”

What about Willson?
Ross said Willson Contreras (right knee sprain) is doing well but not moving 100%. Before Sunday’s game, Contreras got some work in, testing the knee (with a brace) running the bases. As for what else he’s doing, Ross said Contreras is doing some catching but not blocking just yet.

When Contreras returns, it might be as a designated hitter first. The Cubs visit the White Sox this weekend before going to Minnesota to see the Twins, potentially giving Contreras a chance to DH.

“I think the catching stuff, in my mind, we’ll be extra cautious on to make sure he’s right,” Ross said.

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“How much caffeine do you need?” Felton Kizer is fond of asking customers who come into Monday Coffee Company. Then, depending on their response, Kizer sets off to concoct something unique: a cold brew, a latte, a chai tea.

Monday Coffee Company launched last October, showing up at pop-up events like the Ace Hotel for Compop or Logan Square’s Sauced Sundays. For a year and a half before that, though, Kizer and his partner Amanda Harth had been discussing going into the coffee business. They felt it would be a way to foster community in the midst of the pandemic.

“We wanted to create something that would keep people connected at a time when they were unable to meet,” Harth, 33, said.

More than that, they wanted to create a Black- and queer-owned business that supported similar businesses during a time when calls for social justice rang out across the country.

“I’m not the marching-and-burning-buildings type of guy,” Kizer said. “I’m a blow-up-the-establishment type of guy.”

For Kizer, a queer Black man, that meant addressing what he called the whitewashing of the coffee industry. He said no matter how many coffeehouses and cafes he went into, he rarely saw someone who looked like him at the helm.

“Where do people get their coffee from? Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Brazil — all very Black and Brown countries,” Kizer, 27, said. “But I walk into a cafe, and it’s very white, it’s very weird, and it’s very aggressive. Someone is taking your culture, literally selling it back to you, but also telling you that you’re not really good enough to have this thing that is part of your ancestors.”

Now, Kizer and Harth are fighting that whitewashing through Monday Coffee Company’s new residency at Washington Park’s former Currency Exchange Cafe at 305 E. Garfield Blvd.

The residency was offered through the Rebuild Foundation’s Retreat at Currency Exchange program. Rebuild is a non-profit founded by artist and University of Chicago professor Theaster Gates. The Retreat program supports Black artists and culinary entrepreneurs through things like residencies across the South Side.

“When I met them, I could see their passion for their business,” Gates said. “Their kindness combined with their personal work ethic, aesthetic, intention and willingness to innovate with their products is great for small business.”

As part of the residency, Harth and Kizer created and priced a menu, serving tea and coffee during the day and boozy latte cocktails in the evening. Monday Coffee Company’s grounds are roasted in Grand Rapids, Mich., then brewed on site at their new location. The space also has Wi-Fi and meeting spaces for other entrepreneurs.

Harth and Kizer are running Monday Coffee Company based on their idea of sustainability and inclusivity. They intentionally settled in a predominantly Black area of the city; their tea comes from a Black female-owned business; they have direct contact with their coffee bean farmers; and they have promised to remain transparent about changes in the business with their customers.

Amanda Harth, co-founder of Monday Coffee Company, prepares a drink at Retreat at Currency Exchange Cafe, located at 305 E. Garfield Blvd. Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

“We don’t want the traditional coffee shop,” Harth said. “We see (Monday Coffee Company) existing in moments and experiences.”

Kizer and Harth agree what makes Monday Coffee Company so unique is their newness to the coffee industry. Before starting the business, Kizer used to be a portrait photographer, and Harth was in fashion.

“We don’t have a background in coffee, so we could do whatever we want,” Kizer said. “We don’t have that pressure of the industry trying to tell us what to do.”

While Kizer used his interpersonal skills, honed from his photography days, to help generate an atmosphere of community and comfortability, Harth applied her finance and marketing skills from fashion.

“If nothing else, the product is going to look cute!” Harth said. “It’s going to be … great branding, great packaging, and it’s going to tell a story.”

The coffeehouse will welcome customers Aug. 26 at an official launch party. The event will include a coffee tasting, an experiential barista’s menu, coffee cocktails and music by DJ Sean Doe.

Cheyanne M. Daniels is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South and West sides.

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Did you miss the warning about this summer being especially bad for wasps? Yeah, me too. Even though our 115-year-old farmhouse has all sorts of eaves and hollows, places where wasps gather.

Though you believe it, right? Of course you do. If you’re like me, the one-damn-thing-after-another quality of the past year has led to dull acceptance of almost any horror.

If I ran into a neighbor carrying a bucket of water and a ladle, and he explained, “It’s for the burning frogs falling from the sky. They scorch the lawn, but a quick ladle of water fixes that,” I’d shrug and think, “Oh right, the burning frogs. Better get a bucket …”

Then that’s me. I look at people simply denying one obvious situation or another — COVID, global warming, systemic racism — with blinking incomprehension. It’s … right … there. Just … open your eyes and … look.

No? Can’t do that? Not into the whole perceiving-what’s-in-front-of-you game? I guess that’s your way of coping with the stress of bad stuff: “If I don’t see it, it’s not there.” But c’mon buddy, graduate kindergarten, put on your big-boy pants and join the adults.

Maybe it’s a Jewish thing. All the optimists in my family are buried in a pit back in Poland.

Yes, grasping trouble can be a process. The tendency is to ignore or minimize problems. Most summers, the wasps spout from a chink in the brick foundation in front of our house. Out of harm’s way.

This summer, naturally, the wasps took up residence under the window box jutting onto the porch, inches from our front door. As we came and went, we’d see wasps coming and going, a wasp parody of our routine. Still, a situation I can handle, or so I thought. I’m not immune to underestimating perils.

Off to the Ace Hardware for a couple cans of wasp-be-gone. Then two more. Then four more. Then another three. I’d fire the murderous foam into the hole then stand as the alarm went out and the wasps arrived at their besieged home, only to be picked off, one by one. There was a grim satisfaction to it.

My wife wondered if perhaps we should call the exterminator. No need, honey, I told her. Why spend a fortune when a few 2-for-$5 cans of Wasp Away will do the trick? Prudence! And patience!

After a few days of this I fancied I was knocking back the wasp horde. Yes, I got bit, twice. And when I went to paint the porch steps, I noticed a second hole where wasps were also coming and going, so started firing wasp spray into that.

Then as I stood, patiently, slaying wasps at the window box, I saw a straggler flying, not to my side of the box or the steps, but to the far side of the window box. A third entrance. So I relocated there, and was spritzing liquid death at the flying beasties.

My wife was inside, watching me through the bay window, a look of concern — needless concern, I felt — on her face.

Then she did something I would not have done had I dealt with this problem for 100 years, because she is a genius. Or perhaps because she is a woman, with all the resourcefulness that allows women, on average, to live five years longer than men.

She put her ear to the wooden seat of the window box and listened. I reacted — and this is the reason I’m writing this, so pay attention — with a scowl of scorn, and thought, “Oh right, like you’re going to hear the wasps.”

When I finished spraying wasps and went inside and also pressed my ear against the window box seat.

Ah.

To say it “buzzed” would be a mockery of the terrifying sound I heard. It sounded like every wasp on earth gathered in one place. A dull roar. I haven’t been to hell, yet, but I am confident it sounds exactly like this.

“Call the exterminator!” I announced, straightening up. She did. Only $125. “They’re deadly this year,” said Bob, from Aerex Pest Control. “They’ll kill you.” Not unless I kill them first.

Looking at that journey, from Why-Is-She-Listening-to-the-Window-Box-Is-She-Crazy? to My-God-Call-the-Exterminator-NOW I wonder why so many of my fellow citizens can’t follow the same path regarding, say, COVID.

Maybe because I’m trained, through disposition, heritage and profession, to take in new information, no matter how unwelcome, process it and then act. Even if it requires changing my mind and my course of action.

I’ve said before: Once you start ignoring reality, then the reality being ignored doesn’t matter, whether 630,000 American dead, regular firestorms or an ocean of transparent bigotry.

We need to find the COVID version of the sound of thousands of wasps living in your window box. Maybe get a few videos of intubated children on Twitter. That might not work either, when dealing with stone denialists, the type who wrote off Sandy Hook as a hoax performed by crisis actors. Hard cases. They can be dying themselves, and it still doesn’t dawn on them that COVID might be real.

The cold response would be, “Let ’em die, and increase the average intelligence of our nation.” But that’s heartless and reeks of the callous cruelty that the Right has already trademarked. I hate to mimic them.

Besides, children are involved, and it’s not their fault their parents are idiots. So let’s put it this way: The wasps were there whether I listened or not. A problem doesn’t stop existing just because you won’t perceive it. Wake up.

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