It's That Voodoo That Tom Do

Way before I did, Tom Ricketts realized he had an expectations problem. Saddled with a civic institution of a baseball team and its fan's elevated expectations, he faced a quandary: how do I achieve fiscal austerity, maximize my rate of return and yet convince the public I am vested in this team and its ongoing success?

Distressed that the cash tsunami he anticipated when he purchased the Cubs had yet to materialize, Tom had become irritable. And the public pressure that accompanied the re-signing of three stalwarts, which meant three more expensive long-term contracts that only guaranteed he'd be on the hook for a lot of money, was only making things worse.

Tom thought. And thought. He consulted with consultants. He lost himself in the creation and examination of scenarios. It would be a public relations disaster to trade Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Baez. As it would to let them leave via free-agency.

And yet, hadn't he spent enough money?

How could he duck re-signing the threesome (one of whom was on the wrong side of thirty, the other injury-prone and the third having seemingly peaked by the age of twenty-eight) without being crucified by Cub fans and the media? In what kind of environment could let his his three stars go without giving the faithful cause to take-up pitchforks and torches?

“Ah-ha! I've got it! I'll make them bad! I'll have Hoyer gut the pitching staff! We can let Jon Lester and Jose Quintana and Tyler Chatwood go to free-agency and trade Yu Darvish! Hell, he's a Cy Young contender and he's under contract! And while Kyle Hendricks is pretty damn good, there's no way he can carry a team!

And best of all, we have no prospects on the farm! It's genius! I can dump salaries today and it'll pave the way to saving even more tomorrow! No wonder I'm a billionaire! And the fans? As soon as those bi-polar crybabies get a load of the new Cubs they won't give a crap what happens!”

And so it was done. The team momentarily veered off-course in May, but is now back to exploring the multitudinous varieties of futility. A rejuvenated Craig Kimbrel is playing like he didn't get the memo, but with the trade deadline just three-weeks and change away, he won't be a problem for long.

Collectively at their career lows, it will be interesting to see what Rizzo, Bryant and Baez fetch—not that it matters.

The heavens will part and ol' Tom will soon be rolling in it. He knows, like we all know, that when it comes to Wrigley Field and the Cubs, the product on the field is less-important than where they play. And he can make money far more cheaply than he would fielding a contender.

Besides, with a championship in the bank, he's set for the next century.

Right?

Devilment

I feared the Cubs had made a deal with the devil when the Ricketts family assumed control back in 2009. Eminently wealthy and—with the exception of daughter Laura—vociferous supporters of all things Republican, I did my best to ignore that and focus on the promise of the latest regime change.

And the Ricketts (okay, Tom) mostly did a pretty good job. After some initial floundering on the baseball side, he landed Theo Epstein in 2011. If nothing else, Ricketts knew the importance of having a highly-talented captain to guide the ship.

It is said that lightning never strikes twice, and yet that is exactly what happened under Epstein's tutelage.

After putting an end to the Boston Red Sox' championship drought, he started in on the Cubs'. Building from the ground up, he installed knowledgeable scouts with which to stock the farm system. That talent could be used to either build a club at the major league level or as trade bait towards bringing older, more-seasoned ballplayers to Chicago.

The farm system yielded a respectable bit of fruit, even if the harvest was a little light on pitching. And Epstein gradually acquired a nice mix of veterans to augment the youngsters. By 2015, the Cubs were contenders.

And we all know what happened in 2016, don't we?

Alas, the wheels began to fall off not long afterwards. Maybe it's Chicago's blind idolatry of its baseball and football champions, but the Cubs regressed almost immediately. While not as dominant as the 1985 Bears, they resembled them in their post-championship self-satisfaction.

Some blamed Joe Maddon's overly-permissive managerial style. Others blamed the players. But regardless of why, the Cubs receded almost as quickly as they had emerged. True, they rallied in the second half of '17 and made it to the NCLS. But in three succeeding seasons, they failed to even win a wild card game.

Without so much as lip service paid to the idea of signing some combination of Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Baez to long-term contracts, Ricketts now appears on the verge of painting himself into the same corner notorious A's owner Charles O. Finley did in 1976, and risks losing multiple frontline athletes with no compensation whatsoever.

With Cy Young candidate Yu Darvish traded away for four very minor prospects and Jon Lester, Tyler Chatwood, Jose Quintana and Kyle Schwarber lost to free-agency, it's little wonder Epstein saw the writing on the wall and left with a year remaining on his contract.

Even before the onset of COVID, Ricketts repeatedly stated “There is no more money.” With a full-bore salary dump in progress one could be excused for asking “There is now, right?”

One also wonders what Ricketts has planned for Willson Contreras, Jason Heyward and Kyle Hendricks. And how this salary dump, with so very, very little received in return, positions the Cubs as ongoing contenders?

It's tough not to see baseball's version of Jerry Jones taking shape, who like Ricketts rebuilt a once-dominant franchise, made a big splash with some Super Bowl victories and then lapsed into mediocrity while turning the Dallas Cowboys into his personal ATM.

While Jones has seeming forgotten everything he once knew about running a winning NFL franchise, the Cowboys spout money like a severed artery does blood. With Rickett's multiple improvements to Wrigley Field and his developments in the surrounding neighborhood, imagining his business plan suddenly doesn't take so much, well, imagining.

Cub fans deserve better than another interminable slide into nothingness with spinning turnstiles and the Rickett's rosy bottom line priority number-one.

Yep. Devilment for sure.

This is Why You Were Booed at the Cubs' Convention, Mr. Ricketts

To those of us in the ninety-nine percent, you are an insanely wealthy man. While your ownership put an end to the century-long championship drought, it has also overseen a renovation of Wrigley Field that spouts revenue like those fountains in front of swanky Las Vegas hotels.

And good for you. You are entirely within your rights to make as much money from your businesses as humanly possible. Where you go wrong is when you say “I don't have any more money.” You understand how that sounds, right? It's a screaming, neon-lit definition of disingenuous.

I'm sure each arm in your Cubs' kingdom has a budget and a profit and loss statement, and after dropping 391 million on long-term contracts to Jason Heyward, Yu Darvish, Tyler Chatwood and Craig Kimbrel your wallet is pretty sore.

But here's the thing. The Cubs aren't a quote-unquote business. They're a civic institution. You just happen to be the current owner. And when you say you don't have any more money, you are effectively cutting the heart out of it.

The window is still open. These Cubs are young and in their prime and just a savvy trade or two removed from contention. I'm going to presume this isn't news to you. Otherwise, you wouldn't have fired Joe Maddon. 

And yet you've essentially told the three mainstays in your lineup that their time in Chicago has a sell-by date.

Huh?

Inviting some combination of Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez and Kris Bryant to put up their feet and stay awhile would accomplish two things: it would destroy the notion you're ready to shred the championship-era Cubs and begin another rebuild (not the wisest proposition as you prepare to unveil your in-house cable channel) while proving you're still interested in further burnishing the Cubs brand (not to mention your own) with another title.

Are you?

Based on their 2019 contributions, three-fifths of your pitching staff could be described as wobbly. Bullpen issues abound. And who's going to play second base?

But the folk who pay forty-bucks to park and munch on seven-dollar hot dogs while swilling ten-dollar beer know these aren't insurmountable problems. There's still plenty of gas in the tank and topping it off for another run is just a savvy (there's that word again) trade or two away.

I'm aware that Major League Baseball's interminable crawl to a decision regarding the Bryant case isn't helping.

But you're putting out mixed signals. Where's the evidence of a clear, decisive game plan? Is moving Will Venable from first-base coach to third-base coach what GM Theo Epstein meant by a “reckoning”? Are you tearing down and preparing to rebuild or are you reloading?

Nothing foments restlessness among the electorate like the mixed messages of indecision.

You have to know that letting Rizzo, Baez and Bryant go with nothing in return puts you closer to Daniel Snyder than Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, right?

Look. The Cubs' organization is obviously very fond of David Ross. Do him a favor and give him a chance. And just imagine the hero worship if the Cubs could pluck one more title from the MLB firmament. 

Even if you do enable that contagion in the White House.