Arlene Gill, an assistant to 8 Cubs general managers, dead at 79

Arlene Gill spent 35 seasons as an administrative assistant to eight general managers with the Chicago Cubs. She became an expert on contracts. (Chicago Cubs)

When Ed Lynch came to the Chicago Cubs in 1994 as general manager, player contracts had to be scrutinized for any mistakes the old-fashioned way — looking over spelling with your eyes, not an electronic spell-check.

“If we messed up with a typo, the player could become an unrestricted free agent,” Lynch said. “We had to go through it line by line, triple-check everything. If it had a wrong amount, a wrong address, if you put a comma in the wrong place, that could lead to you losing that player.”