Column: 10-year reunion of Chicago Cubs' 2016 champions is a reminder the saga is still in progress
It's OK to admit you suffer from Chicago Reunion Fatigue, otherwise known as CRF.
It's a nonthreatening ailment brought on by the proliferation of reunions of our legacy sports teams over the last 10 months, from the 40-year anniversary of the Bears’ 1985 Super Bowl team to the Blackhawks' Banner Years ceremony to Derrick Rose's jersey retirement by the Bulls to the recent return of the 1983 division champion White Sox.
There's an audience for nostalgia days for obvious reasons: The team gets to sell tickets and promote the brand, and adults get another opportunity to tell their kids or grandkids how much better it was back in the day, forgetting their parents told them the same thing.
This weekend's reunion of the 2016 Cubs is no different, though it feels to some like we're still going through a continuation of a long-running saga that began with the original rebuild in 2012, with former President Theo Epstein's handpicked successor, Jed Hoyer, trying to fulfill the promise of "sustained success."
It's kind of like a "Yellowstone" spin-off without Kevin Costner. People will watch, though the feeling is different with a new cast of characters.
Reminders of still-active members of the 2016 Cubs now employed elsewhere - Kyle Schwarber, Willson Contreras, Javier Báez, Aroldis Chapman - make fans realize it wasn't all that long ago they were daydreaming of a dynasty.
That didn't happen, of course, and there are too many theories to go into in a newspaper story. And the old chestnut that sold many an Obvious Shirt - "Just one before I die" - also turned out to be a false narrative.
Cubs fans promised to be satisfied with one championship in their lifetimes, bringing up the names of dead relatives who never got to see one. Then they discovered it's OK to desperately want second helpings and blamed ownership for not delivering another.
That’s all forgiven this week as the Cubs roll out the red carpet for the drought busters of 2016, who ended a 108-year wait in epic fashion.
The 10-year anniversary celebration got off to an early start in April with Anthony Rizzo’s and David Ross' "The Lovable Reunion" podcast, which features players and personnel from the 2016 season telling stories and sharing laughs, like fraternity brothers remembering things they barely remembered the next day, then maybe embellishing a little.
No reunion of any kind can thrive without some embellishment, and Rizzo and Ross are perfectly suited for the job. Both were beloved Cubs players who eventually were cast out of the organization and replaced by new models: the legendary Frank Schwindel at first base for Rizzo and Craig Counsell in the manager’s seat for Ross.
They're taking their podcast game to the big time Thursday with a live show at the Chicago Theatre featuring Joe Maddon, Jake Arrieta, Dexter Fowler, Kyle Hendricks, Miguel Montero and others. Boog Sciambi will host the proceedings.
It's the Chicago version of a Friar’s Club roast, though everyone and anyone is liable to get roasted, except perhaps for Hendricks. Maddon probably will be asked again why he took out Hendricks in Game 7 of the World Series, since Cubs fans just can't seem to let that one go, even though the Cubs reportedly won Game 7.
Other topics might include the Onesies Trip, Matt Szczur’s magical bat, Jason Heyward's rain-delay speech or Arrieta pitching nude in the desert in a photo shoot for "The Body Issue” in ESPN The Magazine. There’s a lot of ground to cover, not the least of which is why Epstein sent down Tommy La Stella to Triple-A Iowa with a .295 average, causing the player known as “3 a.m.” - “He could wake up at 3 a.m. and hit,” Maddon opined - to consider retirement.
The live podcast serves as the unofficial kickoff to reunion weekend at Wrigley Field, which culminates in the Champions Gate dedication ceremony Saturday morning at Gallagher Way before the Cubs-Minnesota Twins game.
No players or coaches from the 2016 team remain with the Cubs, and the media relations people are gone as well. Only a few writers from that year still cover the team, and only one wrote a serialized account of the 2016 season as it happened that’s still available in paperback on Amazon under the title “The Weight Lifted: How the Cubs ended the longest drought in sports history.”
The only main characters left are Chairman Tom Ricketts, business operations president Crane Kenney and Hoyer, the architect of the latest reboot, which began in 2021 and consists of one playoff appearance.
But leftovers from the success of that team - which really includes the 2015 season that started it all - have been enjoyed by many. Wrigley Field and its surroundings have evolved into a River North type of entertainment district that has benefited the Cubs, Ricketts, Kenney and many local business owners.
Whatever your opinion of the Cubs brass, it can't be disputed that they know how to make money.
But neither Ricketts nor Kenney is as front and center as Hoyer, who gets most of the heat when the Cubs are in a downward spiral and only some of the credit when they're winning. A wild first half this year - with the Cubs going 15 games over .500, falling back to .500 and ending 12 games over at the break - has seen Hoyer go from genius to bum and back again.
But he’s not nearly as popular with fans as Epstein, who brought gravitas to the presidency from his days as Boston Red Sox general manager and usually received the benefit of the doubt on his big decisions, including the acquisition of Chapman. Hoyer is more well-liked by the media because of his self-effacing personality, acknowledging his mistakes more freely.
Hoyer also has proved to be more cold-blooded than Epstein, willing to trade the biggest stars of the 2016 champions - Kris Bryant, Rizzo and Báez - in one memorable deadline sell-off in 2021, or to non-tender Schwarber after a subpar year in the pandemic-shortened, 60-game 2020 season, or to knock on Ross' door to tell his manager he was done after a playoff chase fizzled out late in 2023. Hoyer likes to play the long game, even at the risk of alienating beloved members of the Cubs family.
His greatest accomplishment to date has been acquiring prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong from the New York Mets in the Báez deal, though even Hoyer couldn't have guessed PCA would become the face of the organization by 2025 in his second full season.
What Hoyer hasn't done as Cubs president is win a division title or advance to a National League Championship Series, much less a World Series. Until that happens, he’ll remain a suspect in some fans’ minds.
A rash of pitching injuries has made this his most challenging season as top dog, and the upcoming trade deadline can either make or break the Cubs' chances of a long October run, putting the onus on Hoyer to deliver.
When he acquired Chapman, Epstein famously said, "If not now, when?" With a talented lineup in dire need of pitching, Hoyer could be asking the same question, especially because a 2027 season might not even happen.
Hoyer can remind angst-ridden fans that 2016 wasn’t a cakewalk to October. The Cubs went 2-9 in their final 11 games of the first half. The “Try Not to Suck” shirts suddenly looked ironic, and Rizzo said fans were “freaking” over the slump, thinking it was the same old Cubs again.
“Why wouldn’t they?” he said, before issuing some advice to the panic-stricken fans:
“It’s not easy, but that’s what being a fan is all about.”
That might be the greatest lesson from 2016. It’s never easy, and sometimes it’s so dark you think they’ll never wake up. The best teams find ways to overcome obstacles in the end. There’s no formula, but it takes a group of tough-minded individuals to do it, and Maddon’s team was ready for its close-up.
Even if you’re tired of looking back, suspend your reunion fatigue for a few days and enjoy reliving a season like no other.
It could happen again, believe it or not.
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This story was originally published July 16, 2026 at 6:14 AM.