In a radio interview, Ricketts was asked why the Cubs can't field even an "average team" during their rebuilding process. Ricketts responded, ‘‘Eighty-three games? Theo and Jed could do that in their sleep!’’
So in his column, Telander proposes to put Theo and Jed to sleep.
Telander is cynical about the four years of Ricketts mouth dribble about ‘‘starting over,’’ ‘‘rebuilding,’’ and ‘‘trying to do it the right way’’to explain away the bad teams that haunt Wrigley Field the past four years. The first week of the 2014 season is a mirror image of bad play from prior campaigns.
If Theo and Jed are the boy baseball geniuses who can win 83 games in their sleep, then why have the Cubs averaged 94 losses in the past 4 years?
Telander is blunt with his assessment of the situation:
I will ask this again, as I have asked so many times in the 4½ years the Ricketts family has owned the Cubs: What other service business gets to stay open while it serves its clientele botulism-tainted meat, delivers termite-laden lumber, provides worm-infested seed corn?
Telander also laments that the recent discussions taking up all our "Cub time"
is the team business, lack of capital improvement money, rooftops litigation threats and new expanded brick walls of construction projects around the park . . . but those discussions are never about
winning baseball!
Ricketts said fans will be really excited ‘‘when they see the plan in action.’’ Telander, and many other long term fans, do not believe in the final execution of any plan if the owner is a hapless sap who cannot comprehend the mediocrity that is before him on the hallowed grounds of Wrigley Field.
Very few people now buy the idea that the ONLY way for the Cubs to become competitive is to tear down the entire organization and rebuild ONLY from the minor league system like a small market, financially dependent team. Those are two separate aspects of running a baseball club: a major league team that is the focus of both present fan support and revenue generation and minor league affiliates where the club develops future talent. There is no reason to sacrifice the present for the sake of an uncertain future. But that is the core element of the Cubs plan.
It is all about the future prospects, the future ball park amenities, and the future championships . . . but nothing about the present mess costing Cub fans premium prices. At the turn of the last century, snake oil salesmen used to be run out of town for charging the public big money cures for colored tap water illusions of good health.
