The national ESPN Opening Night showcased everything that is wrong with the Cubs.
The one film clip that was overlooked but summed up the night the best was a picture of a grounds crew guy with a metal detector and a bucket looking in the outfield for debris.
The funerary drapes of Ernie Banks to cover up the disastrous unfinished bleachers would have made even the Nixon White House blush.
If you got one large, in-your-face impression from last night's nightmare, it was this: Cubs ownership knows about how much the fans cared about their iconic and historical ball park, but they basically told them "we don't care, we are in business to make money." Every flat surface in range of a TV camera had new advertising plastered to it. The "see through" Budweiser sign in RF was much larger and thicker than the "artist's renderings" shown to the public during the zoning approval process.
The jumbotron is so huge and annoying that it makes the CF scoreboard look like a pimple on the face of an old woman. The white glare was shocking, so much so that the background color had to be changed to a light green. It had to affect the batter's line of sight, especially from right handed pitchers.
How the Cubs got an occupancy permit to allow the public to roam the under construction concourse is beyond belief. If you were a little shop owner in Chicago, you would have been red tagged and closed for safety reasons. But even then, the Cubs had condescending signage to remind fans that they have not finished their work, like new restrooms (relieved?)
When the announcers and team kept droning on about the changes to the park were "for the fans," that was not true. Reports this morning said that wait times to get to the open restrooms were from 1 to 2 hours long. The concourse was packed like a sardine can. Some patrons started peeing in cups, while others left the park to use adjoining businesses restrooms.
It seemed that everything else was secondary to the Cubs having their advertising signage in place.
With all the high expectations for the team, the Cubs fell flat. Joe Maddon was upset in spring training about the lack of fundamentals. The Cubs new management gurus had three years to train the prospects on fundamentals, "the Cubs Way." Soler booted a ball in RF (but got no error). There were two near collisions in the outfield with players. And we learned for the first time that superstar pitcher has a phobia of being unable to throw a ball to a bag!
Maddon was also screwy with his line-up card. Batting Soler second and Castro fourth made no sense. Also, batting Coghlan sixth and Lester eighth also made little sense (though it was explained that LaStella batting 9th equals a second lead off hitter). But LaStella looks like Sam Fuld's little brother at the plate, and seemingly out of place for cut off throws from the outfield. It could have been opening night nerves, but the whole team reverted to last season's epic woes. The Cubs were 0-13 with men in scoring position. The Cubs were shut out. Cubs batters were swinging for the fences and missing contact.
If anything happened last night, it was the deflation of expectations. The Cubs remain a bad ball club until the roster turnover is complete. The prospects and rookies are still unproven commodities.
One thing is certain. The fear that Ricketts would turn Clark and Addison into a mini-Times Square of advertising blight is coming true, but also inside Wrigley Field. The amusement park is open for business, but the baseball ride is still out of commission.
