Their new toy still a business
As Cubs fans, Rickettses resisting urge to act like they own the place
Laura Ricketts met a friend for lunch in Wrigleyville the same August day her family signed an agreement with Tribune Co. to purchase the Cubs. Her friend suggested they take a Wrigley Field tour to celebrate. They were sitting in the bleachers when the news reached another member of the tour via his BlackBerry. The deal was done, he announced. The Ricketts family had officially purchased the Cubs.
Laura and her friend shared a secret smile.
''It was just an incredible moment to be right there with the fans in the bleachers when we got the news and nobody knew who I was,'' she said. ''That's when it finally became real to me. It was beyond cool.''
Each of the four Ricketts siblings, Cubs fans all, have had their I-can't-believe-I-own-the-Cubs moment. For Tom Ricketts, the new chairman of the board, it occurred Friday morning, when he awoke knowing this was the day he would attend a news conference announcing his family was assuming control of the team.
Pete was wandering in the outfield before the deal closed when it dawned on him. It hit Todd on the way back from a meeting, when he asked an associate if he had his baseball glove with him. ''Why?'' his associate said. ''So we can stop at Wrigley and play catch in the outfield,'' was Todd's reply.
We don't know how this is going to turn out, or if or how this new ownership group ultimately will compare to the Tribune Co., but it's nice to have living, breathing people in charge again after almost 30 years of corporate clones in stuffed suits, and they are Cubs fans to boot. It's nice to have people who wanted to own the team for no other reason than the sheer thrill of doing something every fan dreams of.
''The Cubs are bigger than us as owners,'' Laura said. ''They are bigger than Wrigley itself. There is an emergent character from Wrigleyville, the field and the fans, and after being immersed in that, I had no choice but to become a Cubs fan. It was really overwhelming.''
''It's like going to a picnic with all your best friends,'' Todd said.
Before we start grilling the Ricketts Four about increasing the payroll, firing Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella and bringing in a leadoff hitter, let's reflect on 28 years of Tribune ownership, including the brief tenure of billy-goat look-alike Sam Zell, and let those quotes warm the frozen hearts of Cubs fans, shall we?
This is the dawn of a new era in Chicago baseball, even if it might not feel like it right away. As much as everybody would like to see heads roll around the warning track, wholesale changes won't come anytime soon. There's a reason why so many of their young children were in attendance. The Rickettses want the World Series drought to end with them, but they also plan to run the Cubs as a family business for generations to come. You can't blame them for sticking their toes in the water before diving headlong.
Put yourself in their shoes. You just completed a complicated, all-consuming $845 million deal during complicated, all-consuming times. You know you will have to pump hundreds of millions more into renovating Wrigley Field. Fans might not want to hear it, especially after last season, but the wisest long-term approach keeps things mostly the same while spending the next year putting together long-term plans for remodeling the ballpark and the baseball operation.
It's not sexy, but it's sensible.
''I don't think payroll is the issue,'' Tom said. ''We have the third-highest payroll in baseball. It's what we're getting for those dollars.''
Separating the fan from the owner might be an internal struggle that all four must confront. The dual roles create competing interests. The fan wants to sign the slugger at any cost. The owner has a budget and a bottom line. The fan in them wants to win now. The owner knows that before triumphing in the arena, a franchise must succeed as a business first. It's these type of inner conflicts that could make being a fan and the venerable franchise's stewards a challenge.
''It's a balance,'' Pete said. ''You don't want to put the team in financial trouble, so you can't continue to deliver teams down the road. You have to find that balance between how can I put the best team on the field today and still be able to reinvest and have great teams in the future.''
Imagine a Cubs fans being handed the keys to Wrigley Field. Here, take it, it's yours.
Personally, I would've stolen a scene from ''Bull Durham,'' turned the sprinklers on and dove headlong into second base, but that's just me. The Rickettses have resisted the urge to plan a family softball game at 1060 W. Addison and have taken a more sedate approach, perhaps because not all the fringe benefits of owning a team they have long rooted for have sunk in -- yet.
''I have to start thinking of ways to use the field more creatively,'' Tom said.