Baseball is hot again in Chicago as the Cubs are off to their best season in decades and look to be positioning themselves for postseason ball for the first time in several years. So we thought wed check in with Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post to talk about the ins and outs of a Major League club, from peanut vendor all the way to the front office.

Barry was with the Washington Nationals day in and day out for their first season in the bigs and has written a great entry into the sports-literary genre with The Grind. How do baseball teams make certain they never approach their job with malaise? How do clubs manage multi-million dollar talent? What do pitchers do so that they are always ready, even when it looks like theyll have the day off?

With the number of kids seeming to shun football, baseball has reemerged as a popular sport again with American youth. And to be sure, if the Cubs make a run deep into the playoffs, there will be no shortage of Chicago youth signing up at your local diamond.