By David Haugh
Tribune news service

When Cubs President Theo Epstein left an hourlong meeting with Kyle Schwarber in February 2014 at the team complex in Mesa, Ariz., he sensed something special about the catcher.

Epstein knew Schwarber could hit but never imagined him being able to connect even more powerfully with people, eye to eye. There are no sabermetrics that measure character. This was the kind of guy the Cubs needed in their clubhouse.

Add Schwarber to the mix of young talent in Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, and Jorge Soler, and almost any baseball pundit would agree that you have a recipe for success.

“It’s very rare to have four rookies like that,” Hoyer said. “Sometimes the inexperience may show, but they compete like crazy. The makeup of these young guys is really good.”

The makeup of the young players in the Cubs organization resembles the composition of another Chicago team that took a similar approach back to relevance – the Chicago Blackhawks. 

“They’re what we want to emulate,” Hoyer said of the Hawks. “They struggled for a bunch of years and with a bunch of high picks took good players of high character and built around them. That core has allowed them the continuity to win titles. You watch Hawks games and you feel like they’re going to find a way, somehow, to win. Their competitiveness is second to none. If we can create that style here with the same type of guys, that’s ideal.”

And Joe Maddon represents the ideal manager to oversee it all. The team keeps their manager young while Maddon keeps his players loose. Whether it be hiring a magician for the team, blasting ’70s music in the clubhouse, or entering the interview room in a catcher’s mask as he did on Friday, Maddon always seems to find a way to keep his players smiling.

And after five long years of baseball that didn’t have many people on the North Side smiling, that’s the exact type of culture this young Cubs team needs.