PHOENIX _ As he stood outside the White House last month speaking to reporters gathered for the Cubs' championship celebration, Joe Maddon launched into his spring training stump speech.
"A mind once stretched has a very difficult time going back to its original form," Maddon began.
The Chicago media on hand nodded at one another. They had heard Maddon's mind-stretching mantra a time or two.
But now Maddon had a rapt, new audience and a national stage on which to deliver his Zen-like thoughts, which eventually led to a T-shirt-friendly buzzword for 2017 that may or may not stick: "Uncomfortable."
"I'm really leaning on the phrase or thought of being uncomfortable," Maddon said. "I want us to be uncomfortable. The moment you get into your comfort zone after having such a significant moment in your life like that, the threat is that you're going to stop growing."
From untouchable to uncomfortable, the World Series champion Cubs emerge from hibernation this week to begin their attempt at back-to-back titles, a feat no team has accomplished since the Yankees won three straight from 1998 to 2000.
The Cubs' pursuit is one of several intriguing storylines this year as baseball hopes to capitalize on its highest-rated World Series since the Red Sox broke their championship drought in 2004:
The Cubs' epic stretch of failure ended Nov. 2 in that wild, stomach-churning Game 7 in Cleveland. Now that the Dark Ages are officially over, how long the Cubs Renaissance will last depends on the team's core of young players and management's ability to keep them together.
They return the same nucleus, switching elite closers (from Aroldis Chapman to Wade Davis), losing leadoff man Dexter Fowler and basically adding a potential 30-home-run hitter in Kyle Schwarber, who missed almost all of last season after knee surgery before his storybook comeback in the World Series.
With so much talent to manage, Maddon's main task may be avoiding a championship hangover like the one the Cardinals endured in 2007, when they went 78-84 after beating the Tigers in the 2006 World Series.
So how will Maddon make sure his players are uncomfortable?
It should be noted the Cubs spent tens of millions of dollars last year to make the players more relaxed in a spacious, new clubhouse, and Maddon's laissez-faire approach to reporting times and batting practice adds to the comfort zone. The only time anyone looked uncomfortable last year was when Jon Lester threw to first base.
The lure of huge contracts _ for Jake Arrieta now and for Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Willson Contreras and other young stars later _ and the endorsements, "Saturday Night Live" appearances and other fruits of winning should keep everyone hungry enough to at least get back to the postseason.
After that, the Cubs might need a few lucky breaks and a timely rain delay to repeat.
On the Chicago's South Side, where the White Sox are in the early stages of a rebuild, the operative word is "patience." Not only patience with the team _ which eventually will build around top prospects Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech and Lucas Giolito _ but also with Sox management, which hasn't made any significant deals since trading Chris Sale and Adam Eaton in early December.
The Sox aren't touting themselves as contenders, and with such low expectations for 2017, the only direction they can go is up. Rick Renteria is back in the manager's seat for the first time since his unceremonious ending with the Cubs in 2014.
To recap, on the final day of that season, Renteria told Cubs beat reporters he planned to "go home and have every single game downloaded, just for the purpose of (using) some of the good things and some of the bad things when we get into spring training and show the players what it is we're looking for."
A month later, the Cubs fired Renteria and replaced him with Maddon.
The Sox believe he's the perfect replacement for Robin Ventura, a popular former player who bore the brunt of criticism for the team's underachieving ways.
