MICHAEL BARRETT
The former Cubs catcher has had dugout scrapes with former teammates Carlos Zambrano and Rich Hill. But Barrett likely won’t get a chance to mix it up with them in this series. Hill was demoted to the minors last week, and Barrett has yet to return from a sprained elbow last month.
CHRIS YOUNG
The Padres pitcher and Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee swung at each other in June after Lee charged at Young for what he believed was a throw at his head. The exchange led to a benches-clearing skirmish. Both were suspended five games.
GREG MADDUX
The former Cubs ace notched another milestone in a long career this weekend — his 350th win. No bad blood here, though, since Maddux was reunited with the Cubs in 2004 after a less than amicable split. He’s scheduled to face the Cubs on Thursday.
MARK PRIOR
A bitter and injury-marred relationship with the Cubs finally ended in December 2007. (Remember when Prior scoffed, “I’m just an employee,” when asked about getting demoted and possibly traded?) Well, one guess where the San Diego native landed. But don’t expect to see Prior on a major-league mound soon, let alone in this series. Prior cut short a throwing session after feeling discomfort in his surgically repaired right shoulder on Saturday and has yet to make even a minor league start.
1984
The Cubs squandered a two-game lead in the 1984 National League Championship Series, dropping three games in San Diego in the give-game series. The low point came when a ground ball rolled through Leon Durham’s legs to score the tying run in the seventh inning of Game 5. One of baseball history’s most painful moments for World-Series-hungry Chicagoans, but chalk it up to classic Cubs lore.
