'We'll win World Series'
Three years ago this month, in a prelude to a sale as it turned out, John McDonough took over as Cubs president and declared, ''It's time to win a World Series.''
Since then, time, a half-billion dollars in payroll commitments and McDonough have passed through an organization still waiting on a World Series with the urgency of a five-beer buildup at the back of the line for a Wrigley Field trough.
(John J .Kim/Sun-Times)
PHOTO GALLERY
The Ricketts Family
Next!
On Friday it was Tom Ricketts, the head of the Cubs' new family ownership group, standing before a packed news conference dismissing curses and vowing to make the Cubs a perennial playoff team and World Series champion.
Among the messages he said he wanted to deliver to Cubs fans in his first public appearance since his family took ownership Tuesday is, ''No. 1, we're going to win the World Series.
''We're going to win the World Series by striving every day in every way to be the best franchise in baseball. We're going to invest in the best facilities in baseball, world-class facilities where every player wants to play and every coach wants to coach. We're going to invest in the best personnel, and we're going to hold them to the highest standards of excellence and accountability.''
So when does this happen, how does this happen and what does it mean for things such as next year's payroll and the front office and field staff?
Ricketts, who anticipates a ''slight'' increase in the payroll budget from this year's $140 million -- and projects growth into the budget annually -- said he believes that the team is on the right track and that he has the right people in place in general manager Jim Hendry and his staff and manager Lou Piniella and his staff.
''We strongly believe [Piniella's] one of the best managers in baseball and he's the right guy to take us to the next level in 2010,'' said Ricketts, who plans to be a hands-off owner when it comes to player-personnel decisions (including being a comments-off owner when it comes to eating Milton Bradley's contract to move him).
''We have the right people and have the right manager,'' he said. ''You let them do their job. If it doesn't happen, then we think about it next year.''
Whether that makes 2010 a referendum on Hendry's job status -- despite a contract that runs through 2012 -- Hendry said he's looking forward to having a family run the franchise, the first time in his big-league career he hasn't worked for a corporate owner since the 1990s under Florida Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga.
''It's a huge investment for [Ricketts] and his family, and he should be comfortable that he has the best people possible moving forward,'' Hendry said. ''I hope I'm that guy for a while. I have no doubt I'll be treated fairly and honestly, and that's all a guy in my job should expect.''
Ricketts doesn't plan to go on Yankee-like spending sprees to achieve his family's singular goal of winning. Instead, he wants to see consistent, high-quality production from a player-development system that many in the organization believe is on the verge of finally delivering a steady stream of big-league position-player talent.
The longer vision is key to the equation because ''everyone needs to know that we're here for the long term,'' said Ricketts, who sees a freedom from corporate shareholders as freedom to invest profits back into the team.
So what about that World Series?
''We have a team that can do it next year,'' he said. ''I don't promise anything. I don't think that does us any good. But the fact is there's enough talent coming back to this team next season to go all the way to the finish line.''
Oh, and one more thing:
''There is no curse. If anybody on our team thinks he's cursed, we'll move him to a lesser-cursed team.''