Question of the day
Monday, Apr 15, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
“We will win the World Series,” Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said Monday at a news conference at Wrigley Field to outline the team’s plans for renovations to the 99-year-old ballpark.
He said the “financial impact” of the development plan “will help us do that.”
* The Question: In what year will the Chicago Cubs win the World Series? Explain.
- Just the Facts - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:28 pm:
The year after my death. I’ve been saying for years that they will win a world series in my lifetime - but I’m getting older . . . .
- Roadiepig - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:32 pm:
I would try to pick a date but my Mayan calendar doesn’t go up that high
- Anonymour - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:33 pm:
2015. I saw it in Back to the Future II.
- wordslinger - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:34 pm:
Oh, you’re a bad man.
The last time they won, the Tsar was in St. Petersburg, the Kaiser was in Berlin and the Emperor was on the Dragon Throne in the Forbidden City.
So maybe when those guys come back. But it will be a while, regardless, given what they’re putting out there now.
On the bright side, here’s a case where billionaires tried to shake down taxpayers and lost. Now, they have to spend their own money.
I’ll take that over a World Series any time. Almost.
- Downfall - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:34 pm:
The pension deal and the Wrigley deals have some similarities… both took a ton of time to get done (I’m assuming there will be a pension deal). So with that, I’ll go with the same year the pension system is fully funded… so say, never?
One difference — to the mayor’s credit, this deal doesn’t seem like a boondoggle like the pension situation is (although earlier iterations were).
- Aldyth - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:35 pm:
The year after I pass away.
- J - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:39 pm:
Well, on a long enough time frame, anything will happen. So, I’ll say sometime before the sun goes nova.
- Cincinnatus - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:40 pm:
2108
- OldSmoky2 - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:47 pm:
In the immortal words of Zager & Evans:
“In the year 7510
If God’s a-coming he oughta make it by then…”
- vise77 - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:50 pm:
I don’t know the year, but I suspect it will come after the Cards win one or two more WS titles of their own. But, I’m a bit biased.
- Anon. - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:51 pm:
I don’t know the specific year, but G-Rod and Speaker Madigan will be sitting in the same box and will hug and kiss each other when the winning run crosses the plate.
- Empty Chair - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:51 pm:
When is the next Haley’s Comet?
- Wensicia - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:51 pm:
2016
Cubs fans will be so elated, and possibly still drunk, they’ll forget to vote in the presidential election.
- grand old partisan - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:55 pm:
5-10 years after the go more 2 season with less than 50% sold out games.
In other words, only after they need field a championship team in order to stay profitable.
- Why? - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 1:59 pm:
forever and always next year
- KGB - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 2:02 pm:
In the year of the Rapture. Even God will want to come down to see that.
- Living in Machiaville - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 2:05 pm:
Anony @ 1:33…brilliant. Excellent call. Sadly however, I’m leaning toward the others who have said ‘the year after I die’…..
- Curmudgeon - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 2:07 pm:
Never. They would no longer be the Cubs. Theo Epstein is every bit the savior that Lou Pinella was; remember him? Cubs lose 101 games and still are the most profitable franchise in the league. And now they want fans to wait two more years before even beginning the real rebuilding! A nice new hotel will not help the team on the field! Cubs fans will believe ANYTHING!
- Darienite - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 2:22 pm:
2019 - The rooftop owners will sue for the latest plan, Ricketts finally comes to his senses, builds in Rosemont. The Cubs win in their 3rd year there.
- "42" ( Oswego Willy ) - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 2:23 pm:
To the Post …
The Cubs will win in 2069, the 100th Anniversary of the 1969 Ball Club, wearing “throw back” uniforms, including the Baby Blue Pinstripes for the Road games.
Sidebar, if I may …
I am posting as “42″, as the Oswego Willys went and saw “42″ the movie celebrating Jackie Robinson this weekend.
Today is “Tax Day” but its also “Jackie Robinson Day” in the Bigs, and a Day that every Ball Player wears “42″, which is retired by all teams, but one, the Yanks, and they will retire “42″ when the closer Mariano Rivera hangs up his spikes.
While I never stole home on Yogi Berra, never won a Rookie of the Year award in Major League Baseball, I did not need Pee Wee Reece to have America understand, and … I am not enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, today …”I” am “42″.
When Jackie took the field and integrated Baseball, even while some teammates despised the move, Jakie’s accomplishment that day transcended sport, it changed a nation.
At the theatre, an Oswego little leage team all came to see the movie, and upon returning home, we saw that the Oswego team was not alone in that experience. News coverage of teams everywhere going to see that movie made me glad that Jackie is not forgotten for what he did, and why it was so important.
Take a minute, do a little diggin on Jackie Robinson, or even see “42″ with a child, your family, alone. At least for this Post, I am “42″.
- Midstate Indy - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 2:34 pm:
2525, If man is still alive…
- AFSCME Steward - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 2:37 pm:
The year after the state reaches 100% pension funding.
- wordslinger - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 2:47 pm:
Willie, don’t forget the two giants, Branch Rickey and Bill Veeck, who bucked the old bulls and broke the color line.
My hero is Pee Wee Reese, the Dodgers great shortstop.
Jackie’s second road trip was in Cincinatti. On a day in 1947, the racists in the stands were really giving it to him.
Pee Wee, from Louisville, just across and down the Ohio a little bit from Cincinatti, walked over to his second baseman, put his arm around him, chatted for a while, patted him on the back and went back to short.
That shut them up. Splendid behavior.
- "42" ( Oswego Willy ) - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 3:09 pm:
===…the two giants, Branch Rickey and Bill Veeck…===
Agreed.
Your entire post, well said.
- IrishPirate - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 3:26 pm:
In the year 2525.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQB2-Kmiic
- Boone Logan Square - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 3:45 pm:
On the 12th of Never.
- Flyer - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 3:59 pm:
After the Yankees win another 27
- Chavez-respecting Obamist - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 4:07 pm:
Never. Major League Baseball will fold first.
- zatoichi - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 4:39 pm:
Who cares! As long as the beer in left field bleachers is cold, let’s play two.
- 3rd Generation Chicago Native - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 4:59 pm:
After the White Sox win it a dozen times.
- anon sequitor - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 5:11 pm:
Clearly, 2020
- Juvenal - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 5:24 pm:
Next year.
Same as last year.
On a more serious point, don’t the Cubs already generate one of the highest revenues in baseball? is a bit more cash really going to make them champs?
- Anonymous - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 5:42 pm:
“The last time they won, the Tsar was in St. Petersburg, the Kaiser was in Berlin and the Emperor was on the Dragon Throne in the Forbidden City.”
Closer to home:
The USA had a Republican President.
Illinois had a Republican Governor.
Cook County had a Republican County Board President and State’s Attorney.
Chicago had a Republican Mayor.
Comiskey Park had yet to open and the Cubs were still based on the West Side.
It has been a long, long time.
- Just The Way It Is One - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 5:44 pm:
Well, Rich, you’ve asked some doozies over the years but this one really takes the cake! Is God Almighty in the room to simplify this dilemma of a querie for all of us ‘cuz I gotta tell ya that I WISH I could say I have a heck of a LOT of faith in the answer I’M about to give! (The Lord God Almighty’s answer, by the way, COULD be that it’s somewhat presumptuous of us to assume that such a year WILL come)!!!
Nevertheless, I’ll take a shot and go with 2016, a Presidential Election Year like 1908 was–with a more experienced and confident core of Castro, Rizzo, and Barney, to go along with a couple, key, major Free Agent Pitching acquisitions and at LEAST ONE more big Bat pick-up somwhere to help them get over the hump–and likely a change in the Dugout Skipper–(Sveum a good guy but doesn’t seem to have everything it’ll take to manage them through that shining instant in eternity)…
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 6:00 pm:
Not only will they win in 2016, they will be a dynasty like the Yankees of the 1930’s and 40’s, be an annual contender, and win a few more over the next decade. Once the hex is broken, it’ll seem like no big deal.
- Arthur Andersen - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 6:11 pm:
2026. Welcome Home Rod!
- Ed Observer - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 6:26 pm:
Since the last one was 1908, I will go with 2008.
What a minute……………..
- fromafar - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 8:55 pm:
infinity and beyond…
- RNUG - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 9:06 pm:
As a Cubs fan it pains me to say this but … the day they buy the Cards and rename them the Cubs!
- Darian - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 9:56 pm:
Any Cubs fan knows this answer - THIS IS THE YEAR they go all the way!
GO CUBS!
- mokenavince - Monday, Apr 15, 13 @ 10:23 pm:
If it just depended on money the New York Yankees would win every year. The Florida Marlins have won it twice in the last 20 years.
- danlinn - Tuesday, Apr 16, 13 @ 2:06 am:
Sorry to be such a one trick pony, please allow me to clarify my previous comment. In 2024 the Cubs will win the World Series after Chicago becomes a dry town, the result of Rahm being defeated by a rising star of another temperance movement in America.