Mike Tauchman makes 2nd appearance in London Series, this time with Cubs: ‘Hopefully we can give them another show’

Hours before the New York Yankees’ flight departed for England to play in the first London Series in 2019, outfielder Mike Tauchman was leaving the Triple-A team hotel in Scranton, Pa., when his phone rang.

The Yankees’ game was already underway, a home finale before embarking on the overseas trip, when Tauchman was told to head back to the hotel and pack his stuff. The Yankees were putting Giancarlo Stanton on the injured list and needed Tauchman to get to New York before the team departed postgame for London ahead of the inaugural two-game series against the Boston Red Sox.

Tauchman, a Palatine, Ill., native, quickly called his wife, Eileen, who caught a flight from Chicago to join him on the trip.

Reflecting on his 2019 experience ahead of his return trip with the Cubs for a two-game series versus the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday and Sunday at London Stadium, Tauchman laughed at the first memory that popped in his head: a record heat wave. London Stadium’s recorded temperature at first pitch was 92 degrees for the series opener.

Fortunately the weather cooled off for the second game, sitting at 75 degrees as it got underway.

“It felt like 1,000 degrees,” Tauchman, laughing, told the Chicago Tribune. “In that (soccer) stadium where they don’t have any wind on purpose, you’re just baking in there. But it was really cool, the crowds were awesome. And that was my first time in Europe.”

More than 59,000 fans packed London Stadium for each game, which memorably featured lots of scoring. The Yankees and Red Sox combined for 55 hits, 50 runs and 10 homers during the two games.

“Hopefully we can give them another show,” said Tauchman, who struck out in two pinch-hit appearances during the series.

The Cubs-Cardinals matchups — featuring Saturday starter Justin Steele and Sunday starter Marcus Stroman — likely won’t repeat those offensive numbers. Major League Baseball moved back the fence at the stadium, which originally was built for the 2012 Olympics and is now the home turf of the Premier League’s West Ham United.

The 16-foot-high center-field wall is now 7 feet deeper at 392 feet, though it still would be one of the shortest among big league ballparks, while the power alleys added 5 feet to reach 387 feet. Down the line remains 330 feet. The dimensions were adjusted because of seat restructuring in the stadium, not to combat the high scoring. The dugouts also have been repositioned and foul territory reduced.

“When you’re out at home plate and you’re looking (out), it looks like you’re in a totally different ballpark than you were in 2019,” MLB’s official field consultant, Murray Cook, told the Associated Press. “The new dugouts and the new seating configuration kind of pitch out like they would typically down the foul line, whereas in 2019 they were more a straight line behind home plate.”

The Cubs and Cardinals were initially supposed to play in London in June 2020 when the pandemic forced the cancellation.

“It’s one of the premier rivalries in the game,” Tauchman said. “Over there (in the U.K.), that’s something they can relate to because of the nature of the football clubs they follow and how passionate they are with that. It’s exciting and cool to get to experience the attempt to grow the game a little more internationally and do some different things.”

The Cubs left for England after Wednesday’s afternoon series finale in Pittsburgh. Stroman gifted the team with Nintendo Switches to help pass time on the flight and potentially build team camaraderie. Mario Kart was expected to be the go-to game. Jameson Taillon said last week that he had already been using his Nintendo Switch to take on pitching coach Tommy Hottovy and bullpen coach Chris Young in online battles that have generated some friendly trash talk.

One of the biggest challenges of the Cubs’ trip will be navigating the physical grind of playing two games overseas. They get two off days, including a workout Friday, before Saturday’s series opener. However, the Cubs get only Monday off before beginning a seven-game homestand. Their return flight Sunday will have them landing in Chicago around midnight.

Tauchman learned from the 2019 London trip that the most important part of body recovery with this type of turnaround is being well rested in the seven to 10 days leading up to it.

“The simple thing is sleep and hydration because it’s tough,” Tauchman said. “But we’ll be fine. Everybody in here has at least a dozen stories playing on a couple hours of sleep. But it’s worth it. It’s worth the experience.”

Most of the Cubs clubhouse already understands what the hoopla around a marquee event entails after they played in the Field of Dreams game last year in Iowa. The London Series will take that one-day event to another level. Manager David Ross pointed to the time change — London is six hours ahead of Chicago — as one factor that has been on his radar. He anticipates adjusting plans as needed.

“I don’t have to play in the games and some days I’m tired when we get home from the West Coast on an off day and you want to bang BP and cancel this or cancel that,” Ross said. “We’ll try to err on the side of checking in with guys, seeing how they’re feeling and try to balance as best we can.”

The Field of Dreams game and London Series are reminders of the importance to take in the moment during the grind of the long season.

“It’s a really cool venue and experience with the fans and your family and how cool that is, it’s great for baseball,” Ross said. “You want to obviously see the city and what’s different, but there’s also work to do at some point and I think our guys are professional enough to enjoy the moment and also they’ll be ready to play when it comes time to play those games.”