Ricketts (Finally) Gets The Keys To Cubdom

In April 2007, I voiced my excitement upon hearing the announcement that Tribune Co., a long-time nemesis (and hopefully one day, future employer) was going to sell the Chicago Cubs.  For a long time, I had compared TribCo.'s ownership of my beloved baseball team to a bad relationship.  Sure, guys like Andy MacPhail and Larry Himes tried to run the franchise into the ground, but in the end, they were always there for you.  For better or worse.  Always.

And after a two-year courtship, Tom Ricketts, whose family founded TD Ameritrade, is (officially) the Cubs' new partner in crime.  Ricketts will make a statement to the media Friday.  But as happy as this news makes me, I have already been warned about getting too giggly over the situation.

Older Cubs fans have been through this before, like in 1981 when ownership last changed hands.  They thought the Tribune Co. would save the Cubs after the Wrigley family had turned a once proud franchise into a hobby.  And after three years, it looked like they had done the trick.  But after getting a 2-0 lead in the NLCS over the Padres, the Cubs collapsed.

The 1980s and 1990s should have been much better to the Cubs.  Dallas Green had a plan, but never got to see it blossom thanks in part to TribCo.'s mismanagement of the team.  Young talent came through the system as player such as Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace and Greg Maddux should have been franchise cornerstones.  They would go on to add Sammy Sosa, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, each of whom had a share in why the Cubs have become one of baseball's most popular and profitable franchises.

Under a proper management system, the Cubs should have made at least one World Series appearance between 1981 and 2009. And that's just according to the law of averages.

Instead, all the Cubs have to show from the Tribune Era is the following:

• 6 playoff appearances
  
• 5 division titles, 1 wild card
• A 9-22 postseason record
• 1 playoff series win
  
• 0 World Series appearances
• 0 World Series titles
  

The Cubs went 2,179-2,282 from 1982-2009.  They had more 90-loss seasons (7) than 90-win seasons (4) and have had 17 different managers in the same time span in which the Cardinals have had only five.  We're talking nearly three decades of disaster.

In short, Tom Ricketts has small shoes to fill.

Is Michael Silver Seeing The Same Bears Coverage I Am?

Being critical of management isn't a privilege in Chicago, it's a God-given right.  So the following blog, in which I am not critical of Chicago management, could be the first (and only) of its kind.


Yahoo!'s Michael Silver ranked all 32 of the NFL owners, and Chicago Bears leading lady Virginia McCaskey ranks 30th.  The only owners worse than the Bears' owner are Cincinnati's Mike Brown (not that guy or that guy either) and (surprise!) Oakland's Al Davis.

Not sure what's more shocking: the ranking itself or the quote, "On a positive note, Michael McCaskey, as chair of the NFL’s Super Bowl committee, does a thorough and comprehensive job of reciting the rules before bids are considered. I can’t imagine where his peers would be without him."

First of all, the best thing Michael McCaskey has ever done is step away from being in charge of anything to do with any sort of personnel as he did everything in his power to run the Bears' franchise into the ground.  When he was running things, Bears fans watched management continously botch draft picks, free agent signings and coach hirings.  The most embarrassing could have been the Dave McGinnis fiasco that led to the Bears hiring Dick Jauron.

So, allow me to imagine the lives of McCaskey's peers without McCaskey's presence.  It'd probably be something like this.

Overall, this piece by Silver seems to do a major disservice to football fans trying to get a pulse on what is good and bad management ... and Bears fans who know better.

Under Virginia McCaskey's recent reign, the team has brought in quality free agents and a franchise quarterback. Not to mention went to a Super Bowl in 2007.

Some of the teams in front of the Bears that I feel are undeserving include the Bronwns, Rams, 49ers and Cardinals.  Silvers has the Lions ranked one slot ahead of the Bears.  Sure, it's only one slot, but William Clay Ford is watching the pillars of Detroit (Ford Motor Co. & the Lions) crumble at a rate so fast it'll make your head turn.

And while Pat Bowlen is ranked in the top half of the list, I wonder how much Silver took into consideration the fleecing of Bowlen for Jay Cutler. The fleecing he will receive once Brandon Marshall bullies his way out of town and the fact that he watched one of the NFL's best coaches walk away while bringing in an unseasoned rookie.

All biases set aside, the Bears would probably be better off with actual football people higher in the totem pole.  But the Virginia McCaskey regime has helped bring three playoff teams, a Super Bowl representative, a franchise quarterback and (for all its flaws) a new interior for Soldier Field.

I guess what I am trying to say here, is that Silver is no Gold when it comes to power rankings.

The One Shining Moment Of The 2009 Season: The Cubs (Finally) Have An Owner

For the first time in my lifetime, the Chicago Cubs have an owner that is not a nameless, faceless organization that also happens to be running a newspaper.

Welcome Tom Ricketts, to an organization that hasn't won a World Series in 100 years and is trying real hard to make it 101.

Tribune scribe Paul Sullivan has 10 suggestions for the new guy, and here are my five.

1. Don't listen to the weirdos. If someone begs you to not change the name of Wrigley Field, tell 'em to Plax themselves. Or if you want to be a nice guy, ask them if they would still care about the stadium's name if it meant the Cubs won a championship in 2010. If they say yes, then you can ignore them. They don't care about winning.
2. Bring in a real GM. Call up Oakland and write Billy Beane a blank check and tell him that he can actually work with a big boy budget. If he doesn't call back, maybe you can get in contact with Paul DePodesta in San Diego. And if you're really interested in a GM that loves to blog, contact me at bigdeadsidebar@gmail.com and we can talk business.
3. Lower beer prices. I'm jumping on Paul's bandwagon. Hopefully one day, I'll be in the press box (which should be expanded somehow if possible) and I won't need to buy beer at Wrigley. Until then, beer prices matter to me.
4. Lower ticket prices. It shouldn't cost me Mark Prior's bum arm, Alfonso Soriano's shoddy legs and Kyle Farnsworth's illegitimate baby to see the Cubs get smoked by an inferior team.
5. Fire Carrie Muskat. There is a young, hungry sports writer who's one goal in life is to be the Chicago Cubs beat writer. Hire me. Now.

Other suggestions include anything on this list (then applying it to Aaron Miles too), saying goodbye to Jim Hendry, bleacher-babe cheerleaders, and bringing in Greg Maddux as pitching coach and Mark Grace as pimping hitting coach. Oh, and there's this Albert Pujols guy who becomes a free agent in 2011 ... hand him a blank check too, while you're at it.

Alright, kiddies. Go celebrate a new day in Cubs lore!

TBDS Late Night: The Curious Case Of Cub Ownership

Megan Fox = Hits right?

A long time ago in a blogosphere far, far away, this blogging outfit presented a feature called TBDS Late Night which reported on late-breaking news and provided games to watch for and links to read at your own peril. Once in a while, yours truly will revive that segment when necessary. This is one of those times.

It seems as if since the beginning of time, fans of the Chicago Cubs have been yearning for a new owner. And who can blame them?

All the team has to show for its time under the Tribune Co.'s ownership run are a handful of division titles and more than two decades worth of heartbreak. It is hard to believe that Trib Co. can claim bankruptcy after basically stealing money from Cubs fans throughout the years without re-investing that into the team until late into the newspaper company's ownership of a baseball team.

Now there's this. One day after reportedly agreeing to a deal to sell the team to life-long Cubs fan Tom Ricketts (of TD-Ameritrade fame), Sam Zell and his gang of cronies also are looking at a deal from Chicago native and New York investor Marc Utay.

This is very eerily similar to an episode of any late-90s, early-2000s romantic comedy sitcome in which the guy has two dates at the same place with two different girls. In most of those episodes, the guy gets dumped by both, making yours truly feel a little bit better about his own dating disasters.

As for this very unique Cubs situation, I have a happy ending that can appease all parties.

Let 'em both buy it.

The Ricketts family apparently had its issues raising the rest of the money to buy the Cubs, so much so that the final bidding price ended up falling short of the $900 million projection. Let the Ricketts and Utay camps come together and share ownership of the team. It seems like a far-fetched deal, but it isn't. For example, Jerry Reinsdorf is the principal owner of the White Sox, but he's got a team of investors ... lots of teams do this.

If Ricketts and Utay really want to get creative, they would make a quick phone call to Mark Cuban and make an ownership super-team with a face that has Chicago ties (Ricketts), the experience of owning a professional sports team (Cuban) and plenty of cash behind the deal with that three-headed monster.

As a Cubs fan, here's hoping this turns out better than those romcom sitcoms I referenced earlier.

Quality Linkage:

• Here comes another stupid idea from ESPN. Who is America's Team? [Awful Announcing]
• Tuesday in a nutshell: Jason Whitlock gets his "Becky" on. People ask me what "getting Becky on" means. I explain. Laughter, confusion, disgust ensue. As MJ Hartwig said "haha white people." [Fox Sports] ["Becky" def.]
• Ron Artest's tribute song to the King of Pop. [The Sports Hernia]
• Obama first pitch odds. Is there anything Pete Rose can't bet on? [Vegas Watch]
  

Where Can I Borrow $500 Million?

It looks like the sale of the Chicago Cubs has hit a snag ... not that it should be news to anyone.

Because the Ricketts family missed a deadline and has only raised $400 million of the $900 million price tag, the sale that was expected to be completed in May, will be delayed.

The longer this plays out, the worse the Cubs will get. Not that what happens in the ivory towers has a direct correlation with what happens on the field, but whoever owns this team right now has his/her/its hands tied right now. In a nutshell, all that means is not to expect high-price mid-season acquisitions, or even possibly a lack of contract extensions at the end of the year.

As for the remaining $500 million, the Ricketts family plans on borrowing it from the outside. College graduates around the nation are wondering where they can get that kind of deal.

Meanwhile, Mark Cuban is furiously texting, tweeting and blogging for the Ricketts family's attention.

Tribune Co. needs a closer to salt away Chicago Cubs deal [Chicago Tribune]

Photo Credit: YardBarker