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Cubs' Joe Maddon's Only Concern With Kyle Hendricks On Monday Was His Alma Mater's Mascot

(CBS) The Cubs really need the playoffs to get here.

How do we know that? Because manager Joe Maddon spent far more time than you could imagine Monday night preoccupied not with right-hander Kyle Hendricks' pitching in a 12-2 rout of the Pirates but rather his alma mater's mascot or lack thereof.

For the life of him in the early innings, Maddon couldn't remember what the nickname was of Dartmouth, the Ivy League school that Hendricks attended from 2009-'11 before embarking on his professional career. So not long after Hendricks failed to advance from first to third on a teammate's single while on the basepaths, Maddon approached him. While Hendricks thought Maddon may have a piece of baseball advice, he instead started in on collegiate nicknames and questions about mascots.

"I found out tonight the nickname of Dartmouth," Maddon told reporters postgame. "You know what their nickname is? The Big Green.

"About the third or fourth inning, I'm thinking, 'What is Dartmouth? The Fighting, I don't know.'

"Actually, (catching coach Mike) Borzello had it. Borz had it.

"When your mascot is known as the Big Green, is that like Gumby? Is he your guy? I guess I'm curious, what does their mascot look like? Do they have one? They probably don't, because I mean, you don't need to have a mascot if you're at Dartmouth. All this was a big part of the conversation tonight.

"In about the fourth inning, after he did not go to third base on that ground ball, I went up to him and said, 'If I were to go to Dartmouth and went to the book store' -- and he then says, 'Yeah, I should go first to third' -- and I say, 'No, no, it's nothing about going first to third. If I were to go to the book store and I picked up a T-shirt, what would the nickname say on the front of it?' And he said the Big Green. And I went back and told Borzy he was right on."

Hendricks pitched six innings of shutout baseball to improve to 16-8 and drop his MLB-leading ERA to 1.99.

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