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

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.”

He relied on Arlene Gill as a trusted final proofreader.