In the late innings of the Cubs’ series finale against the Padres Thursday, a stadium camera focussed on a group of fans holding a homemade banner that read: “We need a win to fly our new W flag.”

That flag will remain pristine at least a little while longer.

The Cubs’ 6-4 loss to the Padres on Thursday extended their losing streak to 10 games. It’s the Cubs’ third double-digit skid in the span of a year.

“Frustrating, obviously,” Hoyer said of the losing streak. “I feel like through Friday’s game, we battled incredibly well.”

Since then, however, most of their losses have been blowouts.

The Cubs’ three most recent double-digit losing streaks have come at different phases in the Cubs’ team-building cycle. The first 11-game skid last year, spanning late June and early July, solidified the Cubs as trade-deadline sellers as they plunged out of first place in the National League Central.

The Cubs were already heading into a transition phase, after trading ace Yu Davish over the winter and with Anthony Rizzo, Javy B?ez and Kris Bryant all hurtling toward free agency. But the losing streak essentially set the stopwatch for the coming rebuild.

The next double-digit losing streak made last season historic, in a rather grim way. The team had just been through a major upheaval, most of the Cubs’ championship core replaced with players fighting for a shot to stick in the big-leagues.

Schwidsom-mania would rally fans around the new group by the end of the year. But first, the Cubs lost 12 straight games in August. It was the first time in franchise history that the Cubs had recorded two losing streaks of 11-plus games.

The Cubs added key pieces this offseason, including starting pitchers Marcus Stroman and Wade Miley, right fielder Seiya Suzuki and plenty of veteran relievers. So, the team should be better than the second half of last year. But here they are again.

Part of this dismal spell can be chalked up to injuries. Stroman, Miley and Suzuki are all on the IL, along with starting pitcher Drew Smyly and second baseman Nick Madrigal, to name a few.

“Injuries can never be an excuse,” Hoyer said. “Everyone deals with them. And so I think it’s sort of a loser’s mentality. To me, it’s like complaining about umpires. That doesn’t really do you any good.

“That said, I do think that the stabilizing effect of those starting pitchers is real.”

A lot of the rest comes down to the Cubs’ roster-building approach and how early the club is in its rebuilding process.

In the Cubs’ last rebuild, Hoyer and his predecessor Theo Epstein delivered on their promise of a championship, in exchange for a few 60- to 75-win seasons.

“You can’t pretend that those first three years weren’t really difficult emotionally, you know?” Hoyer said. “And so sometimes when something ends up being a real positive, you kind of sugarcoat what the experience was like [to get there]. So, I’ve had a lot of those thoughts, trying to remember back to how I actually felt at that point.”

Considering Hoyer’s track record, when he says, “I have all the confidence in the world that we’re going to get there,” it’s nothing to scoff at. But how many losing seasons will it take this time? This year’s team doesn’t seem to be built with a 2022 championship in mind, through no fault of the players.

After the Cubs’ blowout loss Wednesday, Cubs manager David Ross highlighted left fielder Ian Happ’s ninth-inning catch. The Cubs were trailing by double digits. First baseman Frank Schwindel was on the mound.

“It [would have been] easy in that kind of game to just jog,” Ross said, “and he’s almost running into that wall trying to catch a ball. … That says a lot about the character that he has and the character of this group. They continue to chase balls down when it would be easy to let them drop.”

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Matt Eberflus gathered up his team after the final mandatory minicamp practice Thursday and delivered the annual first rite of NFL summer: a list of what he expected his players to do — and not do– before the first practice of training camp 40 days later.

The Bears’ first-year head coach told his players to stay out of trouble and stay in shape.

“Get your track shoes on,” he said.

The first time Eberflus made the track-shoes declaration, in January, he was sitting at the podium inside Halas Hall being introduced as the Bears’ new hire. At the time, it sounded like a challenge: We need to be faster.

Almost five months later, though, it’s clear that the phrase is a way of life. In his last team meeting of his first offseason in charge, Eberflus emphasized that players better be ready when training camp begins.

It’s not just that Eberflus wants his players to be quicker — though, of course, he does–as much as he wants his players to know that there’s a standard he will measure them against. His ability to dispassionately grade his players’ speed, effort and even body fat content is so ingrained in Eberflus that it’s become his identity as a head coach before the Bears have even played a game.

Eberflus’ devotion to his H.I.T.S. principle — which emphasizes Hustle, Intensity, Takeaways and Smarts — gives him and his staff something to measure in mandatory minicamp practices, training camps and, eventually, games.

“We categorize every single thing with effort and the intensity piece …” he said Thursday. “We standardize effort. We standardize intensity. We standardize taking the ball away and protecting the ball. And we standardize how we’re smart in situations. So, those are all measured.

“So, when we look at the tape we don’t walk by mistakes. We look at it and say, ‘OK, that’s not the right effort we’re talking about.’ Or that is the right effort we’re talking about. ‘Man, that is the standard.’ That makes a mindful eye for the coaches. The coaches gotta pay attention to that. I am the ultimate guy that has got to pay attention to that.”

The Bears even grade how fast players run between drills.

“It’s quicker, it’s faster,” he said of practice. “We’re running, but it’s not there yet. We have to get better.”

That was the theme of the three-day mandatory minicamp, which ended Thursday: It’s not there yet. Quarterback Justin Fields said almost the same thing about the Bears’ offense.

“I would say that our whole football team needs to get better, right? We’re in OTA, first year,” Eberflus said. “So we’re going in to training camp, this is a building block. We built the foundation of what we want to be about, how we operate.”

Eberflus said he was proud of growing the team’s culture, which he admitted can be an overused trope.

“Culture’s really one action at a time, how you treat each other and how you go about your business, right?” he said. “So we’ve established that right now. That’s a day-to-day process. So now the next step is to get our systems down, and we’re in the process of that.”

Key to culture, he said, is the ability to be honest with each other. Coaches meticulously grading their players is just that.

“You have to have that as a team,” he said. “Because you have to be close that way, because you’re going to have adversity and you gotta be honest with each other, and look at it and say and step forward to the next step and keep taking the next step.”

That next step, more than anything, will be what the head coach himself is measured against between now and the season opener on Sept. 11. He’s already planned every practice, meeting and workout between now and the end of the season. He’s talked with his coaches about how much his players will appear in preseason games, though he’s yet to come to a decision.

Asked what he knows now about being in charge that he didn’t know back in January, Eberflus paused for a minute before settling on, among other things, planning. He’d never been a head coach, at any level, until January; his friends who had told him that he should be prepared to become the scheduling coach and the public-relations coach, too. Some of that, he said, proved true.

Planning came naturally. Eberflus has already picked out three books he wants to read during his summer break, which will last about a month.

In between tee times and family time, he’ll mentally prepare himself for the upcoming season.

“Setting your mind up for what is going to happen,” he said. “There’s going to be adversities for the season –and then, how you’re going to respond to that as a head football coach and as a football team. So, get your mind prepared for that.”

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The curious absence of Bears veteran defensive end Robert Quinn lasted all three days of mandatory minicamp, making him the only player to skip. The team is permitted to fine him a total of $95,877.

Coach Matt Eberflus made clear it was unexcused and he wanted Quinn, his most accomplished and highest-paid player, on the field this week. But he’ll put that frustration on hold for now.

“I don’t have emotion with that either way,” Eberflus said Thursday. “When Robert is here, I’ll talk to him. Him and I will sit down and visit man-to-man and we’ll go from there.”

Quinn set the franchise record with 18.5 sacks last season and has three years left on his contract.

There have been persistent trade rumors about Quinn since general manager Ryan Poles took over, but he has given no indication that he plans to deal him. Quinn also said in April he did not want to be traded.

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WGN TV will be without a team next year when MLS puts all of its games on Apple TV.

The Fire are in their third season on WGN, which lost the Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs and White Sox after their 2019 seasons. The station was able to stay in local sports broadcasting when it began simulcasting Fire games on ESPN+.

But the league announced a 10-year deal with Apple this week, becoming the first to go all-in with a streaming service. Any game picked up by a national TV network, such as ESPN or Fox, would be simulcast. Some games will be available for free on Apple TV, but most will be for subscribers to Apple TV+. There will be no blackouts.

The Fire’s exit from WGN isn’t as disappointing as that of the other teams in town, which had decadeslong relationships with the station. But it’s further evidence of the evolving sports-media landscape. The soccer club was upfront with the station about its potential departure, and the league essentially decided to cut the cord. More information, such as pricing, programming and broadcast teams, is forthcoming.

Here’s hoping Fire play-by-play voice Tyler Terens and analyst Tony Meola remain on the call. Terens is a terrific broadcaster. He has a great voice and strong presence, he commands the broadcast and he knows the game. Meola, a National Soccer Hall of Famer, provides knowledge and levity.

Remote patrol

Sox fans won’t have a local broadcast available for two of the three games this weekend in Houston. The game Friday night will air on Apple TV with Melanie Newman, Hannah Keyser, Chris Young and Brooke Fletcher on the call. The game Sunday night is on ESPN with Karl Ravech, David Cone, Eduardo Perez and Buster Olney. ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” will feature Bob Guerrero, a longtime wrestling coach in the western suburbs. The show, which will air at 8 a.m. Saturday, tells the story of Guerrero’s miraculous recovery from COVID-19.Read More

Maestro Riccardo Muti will miss Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts Thursday through Saturday due to a positive COVID test result on Thursday.

This is the second time Muti has been sidelined by the virus, which forced him to miss five performances in April. Per CSO COVID protocols, Muti tests daily for the virus.

Stepping in for Muti at Symphony Center on Thursday night (as was the case in April) will be Georg Solti conducting apprentice Lina Gonz?lez-Granados.

The program for the concerts will remain the same, featuring Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto featuring violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter as soloist.

According to the official statement, Muti “is experiencing mild symptoms, is in good spirits, and is planning to resume his other June residency activities as soon as possible.”

Muti’s next scheduled performance is June 23.

Ticketholders can contact Symphony Center patron services at (312) 294-3000 for more information.

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While many NFL teams decided to finish minicamp business on Wednesday, several teams practiced through Thursday, using the final day of mandatory minicamps to have some fun and pay tribute to the past.

The Chicago Bears did the latter on Thursday, as every player wore No. 41 as a remembrance of fullback Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer on June 16, 1970, and was the subject of the movie “Brian’s Song.” As far as fun is concerned, the New Orleans Saints unleashed a brand-new alternate helmet while the Carolina Panthers celebrated the end of minicamp with some bouncy-house fun.

This week has been the busiest of the minicamp season, as 17 teams conducted their workouts. Last week saw 12 teams participate in minicamps, with the Miami Dolphins going earlier and the Cincinnati Bengals and Philadelphia Eagles choosing not to have mandatory minicamps.

Here are some snapshots, many from ESPN’s NFL Nation reporters who are on the scene at this week’s activities, from Thursday’s minicamps:

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Bears players wear Brian Piccolo jerseys at minicamp on anniversary of his death
On the final day of mandatory minicamp, all 90 Chicago Bears players wore No. 41 jerseys at practice to honor Brian Piccolo, who died 52 years ago Thursday from cancer. Piccolo, who played for the Bears from 1966-69, was 26 years old at the time of his death in 1970. His close relationship with Bears Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers was the subject of the movie “Brian’s Song,” which chronicled their friendship as the first interracial roommates in the NFL. The Bears initially planned to honor Piccolo on the 50th anniversary of his death, but the COVID-19 pandemic eliminated offseason practices in 2020.

Lamar Jackson not saying how he’ll handle training camp, season without new contract
Jackson said he spoke with the Baltimore Ravens about his contract situation this week, but the former NFL MVP was noncommittal about whether he would report to training camp or play at the start of the season without a new deal. Jackson, though, expressed confidence when asked if he believed he would play in Baltimore for the rest of his career. “I expect so,” Jackson said Thursday. “So, yes, I do.”

Patrick Mahomes says he was ‘surprised’ by Tyreek Hill’s critical comments
Patrick Mahomes said Thursday he was surprised by the comments made by Tyreek Hill on a recent podcast that were critical of him and the Chiefs. “I’m surprised a little just because I feel like we love Tyreek here,” Mahomes said as the Chiefs finished their offseason program. “We’ve always loved him. We still love him. I saw him out at Formula 1 in Miami. I’m sure it had something to do with trying to get his podcast some stuff and get it rolling.”

Cleveland Browns officially name Catherine Raiche assistant GM
The Browns officially announced the hiring of Catherine Raiche as their assistant general manager Thursday, keeping her as the NFL’s highest-ranking woman football executive. The Browns also announced the promotion of Glenn Cook to assistant general manager and vice president of player personnel. Cook is in his seventh year with the team.

Steelers’ Minkah Fitzpatrick: My duty to perform after signing big new deal
After just a few weeks of negotiations, the Steelers made Fitzpatrick the NFL’s highest-paid safety with a four-year extension worth more than $18.4 million per year. Not only is Fitzpatrick, 25, the highest paid at his position, but the Steelers’ defense is among the league’s most expensive in both cash and cap value. But that money doesn’t motivate the defense to perform, Fitzpatrick said Thursday. Instead, it affirms their duty to perform to a standard expected with a paycheck that large.

More NFL headlines:

Chiefs’ Chris Jones has Defensive Player of Year award on his mind

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The Cubs gave Frank Schwindel a rest day Thursday, after his third relief outing of the season.

OK, it was probably more because the first baseman had been in the starting lineup for eight straight games, a grueling stretch for the Cubs amid a losing streak. But at least Thursday morning, as the team was trying to put that abysmal stretch and a 19-5 loss to the Padres behind them, Schwindel was game to play along with the pitcher-interview bit.

“I mixed in a four-pitch mix yesterday, plus and minus speeds,” Schwindel deadpanned, “but, I don’t know, they’ve just been all over me.”

Schwindel has become the Cubs’ go-to position player to take the mound in blowout losses. And he’s had plenty of opportunities lately. He finished two of the Cubs’ last four games, while de-facto closer David Robertson hasn’t appeared since last Friday.

It’s a unique position for Schwindel to be in. He’s helped provide an offensive boost against the Padres this series, going 4-for-12 in the first three games. But on Wednesday, Schwindel was also the pitcher no one wanted to see on the mound.

“It was fun the first time,” Schwindel said, “But now — nobody likes getting beat like that — so, it’s like, ‘Alright, here we go,’ and then try to get out of it as soon as possible and get the guys off the field.”

The story of how Schwindel became the Cubs’ regular position-player pitcher starts in Cincinnati, a week before his first relief appearance.

The Reds were pummeling the Cubs on the last day of a four-game set. It was time to cut their losses and at least save the bullpen from unnecessary wear and tear.

Originally, Schwindel said, they were considering putting catcher P.J. Higgins on the mound and Schwindel, the Cubs’ emergency catcher, behind the plate.

“I’ll just pitch if you want me to,” Schwindel remembers offering.

In the end, shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who reached 10 years of service time that day, got to celebrate the milestone with his first chance on the mound.

Simmons, it turns out, is a much better shortstop than pitcher. He allowed five runs in his one inning on the bump. So, Schwindel was next in line for the Cubs’ next blowout loss. And the next. And the next.

“I got some good hitters out though,” said Schwindel, ever the optimist. “[Padres star Manny] Machado’s going to be a Hall of Famer. Got him out. [Yankees slugger Giancarlo] Stanton the other day.”

But that first career strikeout has been elusive.

“I had two two-strike counts,” Schwindel said, “couldn’t execute.”

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While Justin Fields is the focal point of the Bears’ offseason and their long-term trajectory, the team is similarly depending on linebacker Roquan Smith to continue his ascent and take charge of running the new defense.

As coach Matt Eberflus and defensive coordinator Alan Williams. transition the defense to a 4-3 scheme with all new terminology and assignments, they need Smith to orchestrate everything once the call is made the Bears line up against their offense. Smith has been at every offseason practice, dating back to the optional minicamp in April, and has put the coaches at ease with his command of the defense.

“He’s a very good player, and we’re gonna rely on him a lot to lead the defense,” Eberflus said after practice Thursday. “He’s done a good job of changing and adjusting his body so far, and he’s got five more weeks [until training camp] to show he’s gonna keep getting better and better in the defense.

“You can see him in practice — he’s starting to call things out because he knows where he fits in the defense and he’s getting more comfortable with it. And you can see him starting to turn it loose. That’s encouraging to me and Alan.”

Smith, just 25, is one of the most valuable pieces former general managerRyan Paceleft the new administration and he’s been excellent throughout his four seasons. He likely will be looking for a contract extension around five years, $100 million before the season starts, and general managerRyan Poleshas indicated he has every intention of securing Smith’s future.

Smith said in April he “absolutely” plans to be with the Bears long term.

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