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If big-league hitting is a puzzle, Cubs’ Matt Mervis figures he has the smarts to solve it

Related Topics: Matt Mervis, Chicago Cubs

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images

The Cubs’ Matt Mervis hits his first Wrigley Field home run on May 23, 2023.

Cubs first baseman Matt Mervis crumpled up a photocopy of Friday’s USA Today crossword puzzle and chucked it into a wastebasket.

Frustrated? Flustered? Flummoxed?

No, just finished. Mervis completed the puzzle, eventually wrestling the most difficult answers into submission. Did you know the author of “The Wretched of the Earth” was a philosopher by the name of Frantz Fanon? Or that Nikhil Banerjee was a renowned sitarist? Or that there was a movie several years back called “Tangerine”?