The Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in more than 100 years back in 2016, but the teardown of that championship team has come swiftly over the last two seasons. Kris Bryant is in Colorado, Anthony Rizzo is in New York, Javy Baez is in Detroit, and Kyle Schwarber is in Philadelphia, just to name a few former players who have moved onto different teams. This year’s Cubs are starting another slow and painful rebuild that feels like it will get a lot worse before it gets better.
The Yankees crushed the slowest pitch ever hit for a homer vs. Cubs position player
Kyle Higashioka walloped a 35 MPH slow ball from Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel.
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
The Cubs’ season may have hit its low-point on Sunday against the New York Yankees. The Yankees walloped Chicago, 18-4, to give the Cubs their sixth straight loss. New York scored five runs in the first, three in the second, and two in the third to put the game out of reach almost immediately. With the rout on, the Cubs used first baseman Frank Schwindel as a pitcher in the eighth inning to save their bullpen the extra work in a lost game.
Schwindel’s first pitch to New York’s Kyle Higashioka was 35.1 MHP lob right over the plate. Higashioka crushed it out of the ballpark. It was the slowest pitch ever hit out of the yard since MLB started measuring such things in the Statcast era.
Schwindel tipped his cap after the homer. That was the only run Schwindel surrounded on the mound during his appearance, but it was a memorable one. This was his second pitching appearance of the season, and hopefully his last.
The Cubs were swept in the three-game series by the Yankees, and now have their longest losing streak of the season. Was 2016 really that long ago?
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