Ian Happ

But, you know, our identity last year

was just doing all the little things right obviously we play great defense you saw that we won the team gold glove which was a really special award but the attention to detail on the base running guys taking extra bases guys beating out balls in the infield you know to the next base to help out their teammate and keep rallies going just little things like that and and the awareness of the attention to detail of something the council really cares about and it's trickled down to the group so it's a fun brand of baseball um and it was a lot of fun to be a part of us

Yeah, he does a really good job of setting the tone on expectations and kind of what's important to him and should be important to the group.

A lot of that was kind of the base running that you saw last year and the attention to that.

It's one of the most controllable parts of the game, so really caring about that was a big part for Counts.

But I also think for anybody coming into an organization the first year, you're trying to get a feel for everything that's going on.

And then you saw in his second year just some changes, whether it's staff-wise or identity of the team-wise.

So it's been fun to have him get comfortable in Chicago and see his love for Wrigley Field and the fan base.

You get to see that for people over the course of a couple of years.

It's a pretty...

Pretty special place, and people get to experience it and see that all summer long.

It's really cool.

Yeah, a lot of maintenance.

I've been lucky to be pretty healthy through my career, so a lot of reinforcing some of the things that have kept me on the field and kept me available.

A lot of running this offseason, a lot of speed, a lot of running, and just working on some form and technique stuff, but getting in the gym to start running earlier.

And I think just as you go through your career, there's little things that year in, year out that you want to tweak, and that was a big one for me this year.

It was pretty electric.

was lucky to be in Chicago for kind of the full week, went to the Bears game.

But just the mix between the energy of the city from what the Bears were doing, the 16 team back to celebrate 10 years, and kind of the energy from our season, that was an unbelievable mix, and the fans were so, so excited, and it was really fun to see.

Yeah, it's just electric.