PITTSBURGH -- Pitcher Jake Arrieta and catcher Miguel Montero?arent the only Chicago Cubs players who want to move past the spring training feel to the final days of the regular season -- they are just the most vocal.Both bristled Wednesday night at the decision to remove Montero from the game while Arrieta was still pitching. The Cy Young Award winner had just given up three runs to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the fourth inning when manager Joe Maddon pulled Montero in favor of Willson Contreras.Maddon said it was a predetermined move to give the rookie Contreras an inning with Arrieta in case that combination is together in a postseason contest. Arrieta wound up giving up three more runs in the fifth.They all knew what was going to happen before that game, Maddon said Thursday afternoon. There were no surprises. And theres been no surprises.But thats not what Arrieta indicated earlier in the day during his own radio show on ESPN 1000 in Chicago.Going into the game, I was really unaware we were going to go with a catching change, Arrieta said.Maddon shot back in his take on Arrietas night, in which he gave up a season-high 10 hits.I dont think it was attributable to a spring training attitude as much as the Pirates had a good approach last night, Maddon said.Even general manager Jed Hoyer chimed in, also on ESPN 1000.Its a difficult balance, Hoyer said. We mostly get it right, maybe yesterday [Wednesday] we didnt.In the long run, the disagreement probably will matter little as the regular season has just three days left, which means only three more days of meaningless games.Its a little weird at this time of the year to be doing that, Ben Zobrist said. I understand. I get it. Were preparing for something else than today. Its odd because [normally] at this time of the year, youre playing one game at a time and pushing.In other words, teams normally are not treating games like its a second spring training. To be fair, even the players who want to play more get what Maddon is trying to do. The strategy may prevent shortstop Addison Russell from getting to 100 RBIs, but he wasnt about to get upset.It would be nice to have the starters out there doing their thing, Russell said. People getting rest is OK and giving the bench guys a chance to see how they handle the pressure is good, too.When informed some players were griping about the atmosphere that Maddon laid out to them after they clinched a playoff spot, the manager had an answer ready to go.Were 7-2 in our last nine games, so I dont see any kind of negative pattern right there, Maddon said before Thursdays 1-1, six-inning tie with the Pirates.Furthermore, Maddon wont change much in the final three games in Cincinnati. Hes not pushing anyone more than he has over the past couple of weeks.The relief pitchers are still going to be choreographed, Maddon said. The team on the field, guys [will get] three to four at-bats. Its still going to be scripted.That might not be great news to hear for a regular starter, but that doesnt mean its the wrong move.Its been a little weird here knowing these games dont matter for either team, but at the same time they matter for the individuals to get their work in, Zobrist said. Its a place nobody is usually in.Its new for all of us. They have to do the best job they can to keep everyone healthy and at the same time keep everyone sharp. Thats a difficult task.As for spring training, the Cubs already have had one. They dont need another. Its time to get serious again.It does feel like spring training, Zobrist said. We want to get away from that as quick as we can and get back to playing competitive baseball.Wholesale Nike Shoes Online . 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Can we get a one-way ticket to (minor-league) Hamilton for David Desharnais please.As a former dancer, Ive always tried to imagine which sport ballet might be comparable to, and the most I have been able to come up with is the marathon -- if the marathon required runners to be in character, with full makeup and smiling the entire time. Oh, and en pointe.And by en pointe, I dont mean perfect in the sense that my teenagers use the phrase today. Nope, by en pointe, I mean it in the true French sense of the word -- standing on the tips of your toes, separated from the floor by the tiniest barrier of fabric, cardboard and glue. Those pink, satiny pointe shoes -- and hours upon hours of blood, sweat and tears -- are what separate the women in Thursday night Zumba class from athletes like American Ballet Theatres Misty Copeland.?Anyone can go to a sporting goods store and buy Nike Zoom Lebron Soldier 10s sneakers, and anyone go online and buy Capezio Aria pointe shoes. And that is exactly what Vogue Espana did for a fashion shoot with Kendall Jenner. But owning Lebrons sneakers wont make you an NBA player. And neither will pointe shoes -- voila! -- magically transform you into Wendy Whelan.Reality-star-turned-model Kendall Jenner is a beautiful young woman. At 5-feet-10? and 119 pounds, the 20-year-old slides into haute couture with ease and is an accomplished runway model. And no one could call her modeling skills into question.But those feet! They are like dead fish. They are. Look at them in the Vogue shoot. They just dangle there. In ballet, there is a term for this: the sickled foot, and the dreaded dead fish comment is something ballet teachers say to their students to remind them to point, point, point their feet.Dancers oftentimes resort to medieval torture devices to improve their arches. Dont believe me? Google ballet feet stretcher. Ill wait. I have friends who short-sheet their beds and wedge their pointed feet tight between two sheets and sleep that way to improve their arches. Instagram, which has proved to be the perfect forum for ballet photos, has sparked a whole new movement in dance and is flush with photos and videos of dancers and their footwork. My favorite is Cuban ballerina?Dayesi Torriente Llanes, now a soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet. ?I have seen entire ballet auditions go south based on the look of feet alone. I swear my mother, who studied under George Balanchine (he co-founded the New York City Ballet) at the School of American Ballet and danced with the San Francisco and Pennsylvania Ballet companies, worked at pointing my feet while I was still in my crib.dddddddddddd So poor Jenner and her dead-fish feet incurred the wrath of every ballerina from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow?to the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle last week.She had to turn off the comments on her Instagram feed, and her vastly popular account (she has 66.3 million followers) is part of what made her so attractive to Vogue in the first place. Dance Magazine had Ballet West soloist Allison DeBona write an opinion piece about Jenners unfortunate attempt to stand up in pointe shoes after DeBonas Facebook post reacting to the Vogue Espana?photos went viral.DeBona, herself a stunning dancer, had just recently written her heartfelt Facebook commentary?faulting Vogue for exploiting Jenner by posing her as a ballerina.She noted:Ballerinas across the globe are upset that Vogue Spain hired Kendell (sic) Jenner to look like a ballerina in a video shoot. Well, Vogue Italia hired me to look like a ballerina in a video shoot. Some people originally commented on my video about how I was selling out by being too sexual. I was playing a role just like Kendell, except I have technique.There were plenty of comments from dancers who felt that Vogue Espana?should have used a real ballerina and had no business putting Jenner in pointe shoes and having her dance around suggestively in leotards and leg warmers. I agree. The publication is usually pretty good with the ballet accuracy, but shame on them and shame on Jenners modeling agent, whomever that might be, for not trying harder for authenticity.There were a million ways around it: Use a real ballerina for the action and then pose Jenner in the clothes. Or just pick another theme entirely -- such as horseback riding, ATVing, dirt biking, surfing or hiking, which Jenner herself recently listed as her hobbies.One thing I know for sure. Jenners unwitting participation in the ballet shoot fiasco of 2016 legitimizes the dance, if anything, because it once again shows haters that ballet is not just running around like a child just not caring. It is impossibly hard work. Kendall Jenner might have more money and fame than God, but shes not a ballerina. ?ESPN deputy editor Gabrielle Paese is a reformed ballerina who got her start with Maria Vegh at Harkness Ballet. She went on to attend the Pennsylvania Governors School for the Arts and train under the late Merce Cunningham. ? ' ' '