Cubs finance guy Crane Kenney once said, ‘‘Basically, my job is to fill a wheelbarrow with money, take it to Theo’s office and dump it.’’ In fact, after the club won the World Series in 2016, the Rickettses were content with watching the money from their investments in and around Wrigley Field pile up like sand dunes, reports Chicago Sun Times.
Impact of covid
The sad state of the team now is a direct result of that refusal to spend on players. But wait! Team chairman Tom Ricketts can explain! There was the whole COVID-19 thing. He had predicted the financial losses for major-league teams because of the pandemic would be ‘‘biblical.’’ And here we are.
The underlying message was that any clear-thinking person should be able to understand why the Cubs hadn’t been out there trying to win a division, let alone a World Series. It was a tortured and shameful argument for a billionaire family to make, but Ricketts neither blinked nor blushed while attempting it. That no one bought it didn’t seem to bother him in the least.
Chelsea is for sale
The most important part of crying poor is the poor part. At a minimum, you need to be able to sell the perception of poverty if you’re going to start warming up your vocal cords and activating your tear ducts. When word leaked recently that the Ricketts family was interested in buying Chelsea, the extremely faint perception of a baseball franchise on hard times went out the window. Chelsea is for sale because its owner, a Russian oligarch, is facing sanctions tied to his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Last season
The Cubs went 71-91 last season. There was a reason for that. After the 2020 season, they traded ace Yu Darvish in a luxury-tax salary dump, a disgraceful move by a team doing business in a major market.
The floodgates opened at the 2021 trade deadline, with the Cubs moving crowd favorites Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Javy Baez. Fans, knowing a rebuild when they smelled one, were outraged. All the money they had been asked to shell out over the years — for tickets, concessions, parking, a new TV network, etc. — and this was the thanks they got? An unrecognizable lineup?
How about the Cubs and the Red Sox?
Whatever the Red Sox do, the Cubs follow suit. The Red Sox hire Epstein; the Cubs hire him away. The Red Sox renovate Fenway Park; the Cubs renovate Wrigley. Red Sox owner John Henry buys Liverpool FC; the Cubs’ owners show interest in buying Chelsea FC.
However, I don’t remember Henry ever saying he was strapped for money.
‘‘The league itself does not make a lot of cash,’’ Ricketts told ESPN in 2020. ‘‘I think there’s a perception that we hoard cash and that we take money out that’s all sitting in a pile we’ve collected over the years. Well, we don’t.’’
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Source: Chicago Sun Times
