19 Comments - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 1:31 pm: ===CrainsChicago @CrainsChicago @Cubs owner Tom Ricketts says team is not interested in moving to suburbs=== Ricketts also stated he is not interested with the Cubs moving out of the basement… of the division… - wordslinger - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 2:20 pm: You got that right, Willie. I know they have some prospect bats in the minors, but even if those guys all pay off, they’re at least five years away from being a playoff team. I think the Ricketts got in over their heads with the Cubs. The old man ponied up $850 million, and put up with the Zell tax scam that leveraged them to the hilt, but they’re in a real trick bag with that ballpark. They’ve gone from Blago/Zell telling them that the state would take liability for Wrigley at the ISFA, to having a couple of rooftop owners blocking them from spending their own money. The biggest problem at Wrigley is the upper deck. It was slapped up in a hurry during the 30s when the Cubs were very good. Not a lot of thought or engineering went into it (as anyone who’s sat behind a pole will tell you). It wasn’t built to last 50 years, much less pushing 90. I have peeps who worked there when the concrete started falling and they say the whole thing has to come down. It’s not safe to have thousands of people sitting up there. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 2:56 pm: ===Crain’s Chicago @CrainsChicago .@Cubs ‘ Ricketts: It’s ‘our priority’ to stay at Wrigley=== Where else are they going to go? Ricketts just said he not interested to moving to the suburbs. Get into the deep pockets of the majority owner, Tom, and renovate. Make nice with the Rooftops, that you have an agreement with, and move on. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 3:38 pm: - wordslinger -, How does Old Man Ricketts blame his kids for selling him a “bill of goods”? Tom told him about all these “sellout” ball games, and the ambiance, and the intimacy, and the fans, don’t forget the fans, Dad … The siblings all joined in, but it’s Tom “store”. I always refer to Wrigley as a ‘73 Nova; It sounded like a really good thing, it kinda performed for a while, but in reality, its unsafe, can be an eye sore, and wht made it cute years ago, makes it very outdated today. Theo’s contract is going to come up again before any significant renovations will be realized or the ball club gettting sunstantially good, realistically. The shame of it all is that the Old Man could very well got roped into something by the kids…. not unlike any Dad … less the $850 Million, but I digress… - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 3:51 pm: From the side “Tweeter”, Rauner raised $9 million in the first quarter, has $1.3 million on hand. I have to ask, do I follow how much is raised that is significant, or how much at any given time does Rauner himself donate to the cause? It’s limitiless, in theory, the pot of money Rauner has at his disposal, so does it then become, for the General, more about how much is raised, from where, or is it more telling about how much Rauner is going to throw in at any given time? - Just The Way It Is One - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 3:59 pm: ==Ricketts says team is not interested in move to suburbs== Must be OLD “Afternoon News!” With all the hype about the Wrigley Field improvements, and despite the Rooftop Owners whining, OF COURSE the Cubbies aren’t going anywhere (and likely in more ways than one–sorry, Willy, although I must disagree with Word that it’ll take 5 years before they make the Playoffs. Although passionate about the Game, I try to stay away from such Predictions, but surely with the TWO Wild-Card Entry Playoff System now in place, my sense is that, to the Cub Nation’s OVER-excitement, they will still somehow find a way to make all that young talent gel enough to jump into an N.L. Playoff slot sometime before that half-Decade expires…where they go from there, once in, could be a whole other story, though)…! - Darienite - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 4:09 pm: @Word - the upper deck was actually replaced over a 4-period in the mid-to-late 60’s. Back then it was likely cast-in-place, they couldn’t start until the Bears season ended, and had to be done before opening day. So yeah, they weren’t going to remove and replace any of the contractor’s work. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 4:18 pm: Darienite, did not know. Thanks. - A guy... - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 4:31 pm: When Cub fans criticize the Cubs, it’s interesting and instructive to just stay out of the way. Carry on fellas! - Anonymous - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 4:37 pm: The problem with banking on this “young talent” theory for the Cubs is they aren’t even the youngest team in their division. Or the second youngest. I believe the Cardinals have the youngest roster in baseball. In other words, the teams ahead of them aren’t likely to get worse the next 4-5 years. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 4:48 pm: ===Crain’s Chicago @CrainsChicago Two billionaire hedge fund executives join Joe Ricketts’ super PAC=== Ok, how about finding funding for the ball park? The Old Man & that PAC hasn’t helped the Cubs cause, politically here in Chicago and Illinois. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 6:11 pm: –The Old Man & that PAC hasn’t helped the Cubs cause, politically here in Chicago and Illinois.– That hasn’t helped, but I don’t think it’s been a dealbreaker. As far as renovating Wrigley, I think the outrageous taxpayer ripoff that is new Cominskey stings, as does the 20-years-in-the-making-FUBAR-fiasco between Daley and McCaskey that got us the flying saucer in Soldier Field. The other thing with the Ricketts, though…. can anyone there play this game? They’re being held up by a couple of rooftop owners. They can’t roll those guys? They can’t make the alderman, Tunney, or Emanuel, snap to attention, when they’re the biggest money-machine in the ward? Very strange. You ain’t in Omaha anymore, boys. Really don’t see a focused plan in that organization, in the boardroom or on the field. Seriously, Dale Sveum, then Ricky Renteria? Were they hot commodities? Rizzo and Edwin Jackson to long-term contracts? Why? To what end? With Renteria, at least, you have someone on staff who can speak Spanish. The Cubs didn’t have that last year, which is beyond bizarre in MLB in 1974, must less 2014. That’s progress, I guess. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 6:13 pm: ===Dave McKinney @davemckinney123 No kidding? Dan Rutherford closes quarter with $1 .1 million=== How much is going to have to go to Lawyers? If the lawsuit gets thrown out, and not appealed, it will be interesting to see the June 30 balance and payouts from this last filing till then. - Just The Way It Is One - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 6:17 pm: ==That’s progress, I guess.== True. How true. Baby steps. But even a baby’s steps will at least USUALLY get him/her where they’re headed to, if the babe stays focused on the target of their little, stumbling walk, and even if it looks funny while he’s/she’s bumbling along the way to get there, AND it takes a little longer than an Adult (i.e. the Yankees and Cardinals of the World, etc.)…! - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 6:27 pm: ===The other thing with the Ricketts, though…. can anyone there play this game? They’re being held up by a couple of rooftop owners. They can’t roll those guys? They can’t make the alderman, Tunney, or Emanuel, snap to attention, when they’re the biggest money-machine in the ward? Very strange. You ain’t in Omaha anymore, boys.=== Agreed. Tom when to school at U. of Chicago, right? So you would think, inbetween ditching class to to go Wrigley, and meeting his wife in the bleachers, (admitted by Mr. Ricketts, and sold as a selling point to the Old Man, but I digress…), you would have figured a roadmap of how the City and State works, and being there with Tunney and Rahm, almost from the get-go, the very unsavy Cubs Organization failed to see where they could big-foot and neglected to see how the rooftop agreements could be manuvered with some political know-how. As for Sveum, and now Renteria; The Big Club required a hall of famer to ride buses all they way up its organization, and made it quite clear, that Ryne Sandberg, “He is a minor league manager for now, but we will see…” Yeah, they saw. they told him to go, and the Phillies made the deal the Cubs refused; AAA, then manage the Club up North. Period. “You can’t fire a legend”, “The club being bad should not fall on a Cub great”, “Ryne will be bigger than all the players and some of the management, Ryne might not be controllable”, … and the list of excuses went on. Good on the Phillies, Sandberg’s first stop, for recognizing the humility to go to Class A Ball, and AA, and buses, and reusable uniforms, and all the “Bull Durham” schtick … to give him a place in the Bigs. That, no snark, is something I hold against the Ricketts, the “regime” before Theo, and Theo’s Crew too. Bad. Form. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 6:46 pm: ===Ray Long @RayLong Oberweis releases income for past two years=== Let’s be clear; I am a Dope. Being a Dope…I have to ask, “If the wife is a ‘resident’ of Florida, how can Jim Oberweis and his wife, file jointly, from the Sugar Grove, IL, address, with her primary residence, remember, for tax purposes, is in Florida, Federally?” - Arthur Andersen - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 9:18 pm: Good question, Willy, from one Dope to another. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 10:04 pm: AA, you and Willie give me hope for a return to sanity of my old Main Street GOP. I miss the Main Street GOP crew of my youth more than a breath of air. Rocks of the community — investors in their communities, believers in their communities, not just Ayn Rand cheap hustlers. Back in the day, real “liberals” swung a hammer on the anvil of real “conservatives.” What a spark. In that honest conflict was forged a country not seen before or since. Jesus H Christ almighty, I ain’t that old. Who doesn’t see what we’re missing today? - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 15, 14 @ 10:37 pm: If you are judged by the company you keep, I think I get the better end of the deal with an - AA - pairing. I will try not to drag you down too far, - AA -. - wordslinger -, I have to believe in the best of My Party will overtake the lemming idea of going against its better self, and this mathematical impossibility that shrinking My Party … makes it better, and by shrinking My Party… also makes it a Majority Party too. It’s going to take work. I don’t mind. Others don’t mind too. Thanks for always understanding. I appreciate you in my corner for the goal … of a GOP that is needed. Appreciate it. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.