As the first long, holiday weekend of the season is upon us, there is a ton of marinated meats being seared on grills. Likewise, the Cubs are being grilled into bits of charcoal as they have now lost 12 in a row with no signs of turning the streak around.
There is an old saying, "you have to hit rock bottom before you can move up." Well, Cub fans thought the team hit rock bottom in April. The current record is the 5th worst in team history, equaling the 1962 squad. The 12 game losing streak is the second longest in team history (14 is within sights).
While Cubs president Theo Epstein came into town with a vague message about re-tuning the team to bring about a championship, owner Tom Ricketts banned the use of the term "re-building." Re-building does not sell tickets or bring excitement to the ball park. Ricketts sole focus has been ball park improvements instead of team improvements. He is out in public begging for $150 million in taxpayer dollars from the city and state when both are fiscally bankrupt and cutting needed social services.
A Black alderman was quoted in the paper that before one dollar of public money is spent on the private toy of a rich family, that Ricketts would have to show that any such expenditure would help "the entire city," and create permanent jobs and economic development. In objective reality, there is no way for Ricketts to convince this alderman.
A long losing steak hurts the club in more ways than just in the standings. A losing streak puts in the minds of the public and their leaders that it "lost money" to follow a team that cannot put a decent team on the field. Why put tax dollars into a private business that created their own money losing situation?
A losing streak also has the effect of constricting second economies around the ball park. A fan going to a game is an investment of both time and money. Ricketts has consistently raised ticket prices to such levels that a family of four really cannot afford to go to the park. In addition, the time to get to the park on city side streets, parking and the commute home puts a three hour game into six hours of time. There are many different entertainment options available to Cub fans, most cheaper and closer to home.
A losing streak also brings down an already shaky secondary ticket market. Two years ago, ticket brokers and season ticket holders who wished to "profit" from their inventory of game tickets, sold them on StubHub, eBay or in classified ads. When the Cubs were drawing 3 million fans and the bleachers were the biggest beer bash Oak Street Beach happening, the secondary ticket market was very good. So good that the Tribune set up its own scalping division.
But a recession hit, unemployed spiked up and the Cubs were no longer competitive. Season ticket holders who made money on re-sales, renewed their packages then found themselves holding unwanted tickets for most of last season. This year, the situation is worse. Chicago ticket brokers have said that they are getting "murdered" out their in the market. You can tell by the increasing number of non-sell outs (the White Sox series at Wrigley was not sold out for any game; a first) and number of no shows (which are now thousands per contest), the demand for the Cub experience is falling hard.
Just as a long losing streak has a negative effect on morale of fans, it has to have some burden upon the players. Players are a competitive animal who throughout their career have been trained to win games. But there is a fine line between being a good professional player and being a bad player being demoted back to the minors. The Cubs roster is filled with AAAA players and marginal journeymen utility bench players. The media is reporting on their losing which has to sting. When it gets to historical stories, players begin to press in order to succeed which often creates more trouble. Example, the Cubs starters are getting no run support. Ryan Dempster threw another quality start and lost 1-0. So the other starters have to believe that they need to pitch a near perfect game in order to get a victory. So they try "harder," and in the case of Matt Garza, left strikes in the middle of the plate for monster Pirate home runs.
The Cubs return home to play the woeful Padres, but the pressure is all on the Cubs to win. The Cubs are so far behind, they are basically eliminated from the playoffs before the trade deadline of July 31. As such, players must think in the back of their minds that they could be trade bait or "designated for assignment" like Blake DeWitt. A complete blow up of the roster could occur just to show the world that management realizes that this team, as constructed, need drastic change. But ownership will have none of that: it is counterproductive to its marketing campaigns. No matter what is now said in the Cub front offices, their credibility has been lost.
Supporters will say that there is one silver lining in losing: high draft picks. The example of the Washington Nationals, who have had massively poor years back to back, selected potential All Stars in Strasburg and Harper. The Nationals turnaround is shown as an example of getting top talent and turning around a team quickly. However, the one variable needs to be proven: that Theo and his team are really the genius talent evaluators. Skeptics will say that not one of the players Theo has brought to the Cubs so far has been a game changer. The Cubs have left Hendry's organization (which itself over-reached for players who busted out) in place for this year's draft.
In addition, the Cubs high pick(s) will happen in 2013 and 2014. That means players drafted in those years will need a year or two of development, which means the time table for starting a young, competitive team is 2016 or 2017 (which is at the end of Epstein's contract). It is hard to swallow paying top market prices for bad Cub baseball for another six or more seasons under the sales pitch that the Cubs will be good, soon. For this transition phase, there will be more losing streaks and losing seasons. In the end, there may be only a charred remains of a franchise doomed to bottom dwell (i.e. the Royals).
