The 10-year reunion hangovers are the best kind of hangovers.
You’re young enough to still tie one on, but old enough to know when it’s time to crash. Still crazy enough to do something dumb, but mature enough to curb your impulses.
Reliving the past during a weekend celebration with old friends reminds you of where you’ve been and where you’re at, and how lucky you were to have shared it together. Then everyone hugs and promises to stay in touch, before life gets in the way.
From the outside looking in, the gathering of the 2016 Cubs this weekend from Wrigley Field to Butler National to Murphy’s to the Gman Tavern was one giant family reunion with a lot of laughs and sentences that began with “Remember when …?”
On Sunday morning, before the Cubs’ 10-1 win over the Minnesota Twins at Wrigley, the ex-players and staff from ’16 were given the field to play with their kids.
Mike Montgomery, who retired Cleveland’s Michael Martínez on that 5-3 groundout in Game 7 of the World Series, which officially ended the Cubs’ 108-year drought, was seen throwing batting practice to his son. A few feet away, reliever Justin Grimm was giving tips to his son, a budding pitcher. Near the dugout, I talked potato chips with Jason Hammel, who recalled he was told by Cubs physician Steven Adams to eat plenty of chips to alleviate his arm cramps, only to see a food company deliver a huge crate with boxes of potato chips to the clubhouse a few days later, the “breakfast of champions” in the championship season.
Members of the 2016 World Champion Chicago Cubs team stand together in the right field bleachers while singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch of a game between the Cubs and the Minnesota Twins at Wrigley Field in Chicago on July 18, 2026. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Matt Szczur spoke about his post-playing career as an artist, while Trevor Cahill showed his daughter the clubhouse where “we celebrated after all the wins.” John Lackey and Jake Arrieta were at the cage there with their children, and other kids just ran around on the field like it was their own backyard.
“Like (Anthony Rizzo) said, we get back together and a lot of these kids haven’t seen each other in 10 years, and they picked up right where they left off in the family room and bumming around, walking around Wrigley and hanging out,” Jon Lester said. “It’s like a family again.”
Everyone lauded the Cubs for putting on a great party, and despite smoky, sweaty weather in Chicago, the city was at its mid-July peak, with Wrigley in its summer finest.
“It hasn’t been just a one-afternoon thing,” former president Theo Epstein said. “It’s been three days of being treated like gold, so we really appreciate it.”
There were a few inaccuracies delivered that left Boomer Cubs fans shaking their heads. That’s what happens when you try to script every moment like it’s the Cubs Convention.
Szczur was introduced at the Champions Gate dedication ceremony as a pitcher, not an outfielder. He laughed about it, but really, Cubs? Miguel Montero was referred to as someone who tossed great batting practices, not as the catcher who hit the grand slam against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the 2016 NLCS, or who drove in the eventual winning run in the 10th inning of the Game 7 win in the World Series.
Throwing out the first pitch, Kyle Hendricks was introduced as someone who “started Game 3 and appeared in the decisive Game 7 of the World Series.” Yes, both are true. But Hendricks didn’t just “appear” in Game 7, he started the biggest game in most Cubs fans’ lives.
Former Chicago Cubs catcher David Ross holds the 2016 World Series trophy while standing beside his former teammates during the national anthem for a game between the Cubs and the Minnesota Twins at Wrigley Field in Chicago on July 18, 2026. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Some simple googling would’ve helped the Cubs out when condensing a player’s contributions to the championship season into a few words. Some media members also failed to do their homework. A reporter asked David Ross a question that began: “When you became a coach …”
“I was never a coach,” Ross interrupted. “I was the manager.”
Otherwise, it was a successful party that got even weirder Saturday when Michael Busch hit a home run ball to Rizzo’s seat, which Rizzo hoisted in the air while putting his son on his shoulder.
The Cubs would’ve scripted that moment too if they could have, but didn’t have to in the end. When you’re a bona fide legend like Rizzo, stuff just happens naturally to you.
Rizzo giving a shoutout to late clubhouse manager Tom “Otis” Hellmann was a wonderful gesture, and the plaque honoring the 2016 team was nice, even though it left off reliever Joe Smith, a valuable, second-half bullpen acquisition. You can google that, too, Cubs.
I enjoyed the idea of putting the players in the bleachers, even though they’re mostly multi-millionaires now and would never sit in the hot sun when a comfy suite was an option. I wish they knew the stories of Marv Rich, an original right-field bleacher bum with no shirt, a pot belly and a giant cigar hanging out of his mouth, complaining about the yuppies invading the bleachers.
“They don’t care about watching the game,” he said during a game in 1987. “All they care about is getting a good tan and being able to tell everyone later that they got it in the bleachers.”
Rich is long gone, but if he were alive today and saw someone making a cup snake, he’d be just as annoyed.
The end of the 2016 reunion meant it was time for everyone to go home, back to carting their kids around or golfing or just sitting back in a comfy chair on the patio with a cold beverage at sunset and a John Prine song on the speaker.
“In spite of ourselves, we’ll end up a-sittin’ on a rainbow.”
See you again in 10 years. Stay in touch.