Ian Happ

And so I've seen every pitch that he's seen in the big leagues and been with him for every second of it.

So seeing the work that he puts in behind the scenes, seeing, you know, him go through some injuries and come out the other side and, you know,

it, it just, for me, it was just such a proud, um, moment when he told me that he got the extension, um, and, you know, getting to, getting to be there for that.

And then, um, to see his family up there, uh, and his fiance and, and, and to see them, you know, get to celebrate him and his accomplishments and his achievements, you know, he deserved this.

He deserved to be a Cub and to be here.

Um, and, and, um,

He's put in a lot of work to get to this point.

It's just not easy to play in this game for as long as he has and to have the success that he's had.

He does it a little bit differently than what is the conventional baseball wisdom on how to play the game today.

He impacts winning on such a scale.

an amazing level and does it in so many different ways.

And so for him to be rewarded for that and for him to stick true to who he is as a baseball player, and then eventually, you know, get rewarded for that and have it be appreciated by the organization is a really special thing.

And yeah, it was, it was definitely emotional for me sitting there and, and just, you know, listening to him talk about how special this place is to him.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, one of the things that's... When you get to play in a place for 10 years, you get to see a lot of things, a lot of turnover.

But you get...

to share these experiences with people, not only teammates and coaches, but also staff and support staff and people that have worked with the Cubs for 20 plus years.

And you get to see how much it means to people.

And I think one of the most fulfilling parts of this job is to get to see young players come up and succeed, to get to see Pete and Bushy and Shaw succeed.

and kade and these guys come up and and turn into the players that you hope or expect them to be um and and watch them develop that that's a really special part of this um and also when you get to see new players come in and create an appreciation for chicago and appreciation for wrigley you know