Podcast anniversary: Happ ‘here not just to play baseball’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Mesa, Ariz. – Four Cubs teammates huddled around a podcast microphone in the theater room of the house they’d call home for over two months.
It was March 2020, and MLB Spring Training had shut down a couple weeks prior. They’d been staying on “the compound” while they waited to hear what was next for Major League Baseball.
Ian Happ leaned in and uttered the words that would kick off their new adventure:
“Welcome to the first episode of The Compound podcast, coming to you live from the compound.”
Happ, Dakota Mekkes, Zack Short and Nico Hoerner launched The Compound podcast a year ago, this week. Since then, Hoerner has stepped down from co-hosting, Short has been traded to the Tigers, and the podcast has climbed the charts into the top 25 all-time baseball podcasts on Apple, according to chartable.com.
For Tuesday’s anniversary episode, Hoerner joined as a guest, reuniting the original four. They recorded Sunday, exactly a year after their first episode dropped.
“It just feels right, honestly,” Happ said at the top of the episode.
There was no denying the differences, however, all pointing to the podcast’s growth and resilience. Earlier this month, The Compound joined Jomboy Media. And the hosts have come a long way from all talking into one mic.
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With Short in Florida for Tigers spring training and Mekkes yet to report to Cubs minor league camp, they got together virtually. Even Happ decided not to return to the compound this spring training. It wouldn’t have been the same.
On the airways
“The Compound is good for mental health,” reads a five-star Apple Podcast review from earlier this month.
Another from last August: “Best quarantine therapy!”
The podcast has indeed provided its listeners levity during a tough year – a few 20-something-year-old guys chopping it up about baseball, screen times, and whatever else came to mind that week.
The endeavor also aligns with some of Happ’s larger goals as a baseball player and MLB Players Association team representative.
Happ is on a mission to connect to the fan base and grow the game.
“Baseball is a game that people are super passionate about, they love to play, and how can we help the next generation?” he told NBC Sports Chicago. “How can we show them, ‘Hey, this is what's happening behind the scenes, behind the curtain.
“Baseball has been kind of a closed circuit for a long time, whether it's consuming highlights and not letting those be out for public consumption, or not showing off players as we should – I think some of those things need to change.”
Happ has made the most Marquee Sports Network appearances of any player this spring, either mic’d up during the game or with the headset on in the dugout.
He partnered with Obvious Shirts to provide Cubs players and coaches with job title t-shirts – “MANAGER,” “QUALITY ASSURACNE COACH,” “BASEBALL PLAYER.” Then he pledged to cover the first $5 for every matching fan purchase – “FAN,” “BLEACHER BUM,” “DIEHARD FAN.”
Happ’s community work includes the Happ Family Charitable Fund and Connect Roaster’s Quarantine Coffee.
The podcast is another way to break down the divide between players and fans.
“It’s been a pretty cool experience,” Happ said, “to see the way fans have taken to it.”
At the compound
The compound itself belongs to a family friend of Happ’s. The past few years, he’d been staying in the guest house for spring training.
Built for a big extended family, the main house has seven or eight bedrooms, Happ said. The compound also includes a pool, basketball court and tennis courts. It’s across the street from a golf course.
“If there was a place to spend quarantine, that was it,” Happ told NBC Sports Chicago. “And we were just super fortunate with everything that was happening in the world to be able to have that experience.”
When MLB shut down spring training in mid-March, Mekkes, Short and Hoerner came to stay with Happ. As it so happened, Happ had wanted to start a podcast for a while.
“Then when we got in that situation,” Happ said, “it was like, you know what, there's no sports, there's nothing out there. Might as well bring a little bit to the fans of what we've been doing and see how it goes.”
They set up an omnidirectional microphone in the carpeted theater room to record. Happ edited the podcast on GarageBand.
“The first one I did, spent two hours editing it and then like wiped the whole thing, just completely ruined it,” Happ said. “And I had to go back and redo it.”
In the first couple months, the hosts invited future Cubs announcer Jon “Boog” Sciambi, actors Jeff Garlin and Jake Johnson, and Cubs teammates Kyle Schwarber and Jon Lester onto the podcast as guests.
They developed inside jokes with their listeners:
“Is thaaat so?”
“I’ll get the research team on it.”
During spring training this year, fans would sometimes chant, “When I say Parce, you say rum,” when Happ came up to bat, referencing a reoccurring bit on the podcast.
A year after Happ and his teammates launched The Compound, some 30 miles from where it all began, the connection was on full display.
“It's something that we want to continue doing,” Happ said. “It's something that we want to keep engraining ourselves into the fabric of the city and make it feel like we are here not just to play baseball, but also to make a difference.”
