Photos: Cubs Dress Up As Beefy Bikers For 'Easy Rider' West Coast Trip
By Emma G. Gallegos in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 7, 2017 3:28PM
This weekend the Cubs broke out their biker vests and bandanas for an 'Easy Rider'-themed trip to San Francisco. Though some killjoys scoff at Joe Maddon's goofy road trip costume themes for being a distraction, the Cubs manager says dressing up is good for team-building and also a reminder that, hey, baseball is a game.
"I love it, I think it's good," Maddon said. "Anything you can do to unify the group, it's always a good thing. It's fun. And for the group that doesn't understand it, that's too bad that you've forgotten what it's like to be a kid."
In years past, the Cubs have often taken their costume theme cues from the cities they visit. Earlier this year, they took their cues from the loud 70s-style plaid suits of "Anchorman" for a Southern California trip. And last year, they donned beachy pinks and leopard prints for a Miami trip. Strength coach Tim Buss came up with the idea of wearing black leather biker vests in honor of 1969's "Easy Rider." The vests were emblazoned with the nicknames of each player, like "Mago" (which means magician in Spanish) for Javier Baez, Zorilla for Ben Zobrist and Pino for Maddon (which comes from the nickname for Joseph in Italian).
Here's what the whole team looked like:
Cubs. Easy Rider trip. pic.twitter.com/3tBuooIHL3
— Mark Grote (@markgrotesports) August 6, 2017
Maddon says he doesn't know if the team is having enough fun this year.
"I don't know that we've had enough fun this year, quite frankly," Maddon said. "And a lot of that comes with winning, obviously. That's just the natural residue of winning, that you have more fun. ... I just think this is good timing for right now."
The "Easy Rider" costumes weren't quite lucky charms: the Cubs lost to the Nationals 9-4. Anthony Rizzo rolled his eyes when a reporter asked if the team was still having fun.
"My dog didn't just die, man," Rizzo said, according to the Tribune. "We lost one game. We're going to have fun. We're going to go four hours to California. We're going to be all right. It'll be fine."
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