Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune reports on how far the Cubs management team is going to squeeze every single quarter out of the Cubs.
Sullivan reports that during the home opener, the television cameras panned into the Cubs dugout where the relief pitchers sit during the game. Many of the relievers chew gum. The audience was shown Double Bubble gum wrappers.
Sullivan states that the bullpen received a message to stop chewing that brand of gum because the Cubs have "an exclusive deal" with Wrigley's "Brand 5."
So it has come to this: contraband bubble gum.
Wow.
In the midst of a four game losing streak to start the season, the front office business department is more concerned about what brand of gum the bullpen pitchers are consuming than winning the actual game?
The drumbeat for the last two months has been "revenue, revenue, more revenue, revenue, revenue, revenue . . . " The Ricketts claim that they need more revenue. More revenue to pay for the massive redevelopment project which includes rehabbing Wrigley Field. But the owners also state that the Tribune's big market payroll was "unsustainable" so it has been drastically cut. Also, in a roundabout way, GM Hoyer stated that the free agent window "was closing" and it will be difficult in the future to sign quality free agents. The basis for that remark is the massive long term deals signed over the winter by the star free agents. That is a means to tell the fans that the Cubs won't pay for free agents because the one and only plan is to grow an entire team from within one's own minor league system. But that would mean that Cubs would be in less need of increased revenue since they would control their own players longer and cheaper than going out into the free agent market. The baseball message has been garbled in all this redevelopment deal talk.
There is no rule or law that states that all the increased revenue the Ricketts receives do to new advertising signs, new television contracts, or chewing gum deals will actually go into improving the product on the field. The Cubs have a massive debt load from the purchase of the team. The Cubs are going to spend millions on new buildings (a hotel, health club, retail block) which will require new operating costs to maintain. There is no assurance that the Cubs will take all that new money and go out and spend like the Dodgers, Angels, Red Sox or Yankees to acquire the best talent.
For a team that is allegedly the most profitable in baseball, yelling at players for partaking in the "wrong" gum is extremely petty penny pinching.
