There are lots of articles/posts, etc., out there on this year’s Cubs Convention, so there is no sense in me trying to repeat what others said better than me. I’m going to focus on those things that seem most important to me. First, of course, are the plans for restoring Wrigley Field.
The bottom line: They’re good; they’re really good. The plans save Wrigley Field as a place to watch baseball, while improving and modernizing the parts off the field. For example, the Cubs are keeping the upper deck as one of the premier places to watch baseball, while improving the concession areas (and restrooms) behind the field. I personally don’t care that much about the concessions, but if the Cubs can use the money from more concessions to improve the team – and save Wrigley Field, I am all for it.
The Cubs also understand that, while the posts are inconvenient, they are also essential to the intimacy of the park. Without posts, the upper deck (and the skyboxes, if you care about them) have to be much higher and much farther back. That’s what happens in new stadiums, even the good new ones. It makes a big difference, and it’s one of the reasons Wrigley Field is better.
One thing they emphasized. What they are doing, is “restoring” Wrigley Field, to the way it was in the 1930s on the outside. They are not remodeling it; they are restoring it.
The first thing they are improving, and it’s probably the most important, is the clubhouse. Wrigley Field has a small, cramped clubhouse. A bigger one, with better exercise facilities, batting cages, and training facilities, would be a big upgrade. (The picture they showed of the current whirlpools looked a lot like the ones in “Major League”.)
They also seem to be hiring all of the right architects and historic preservation consultants to get the job done right.
The work will take five off-seasons to complete. In other words, the Cubs are not moving to cellphone field to the south or beer park to the north to play any of their home games, which is good news (even if the Cubs’ last no-hitter was at beer park to the north). The project will cost $300 million, and the Cubs have, in effect, challenged the City: We’ll pay for it if you let us do what we want with our property. But if you want to limit what we can do (through all kinds of ordinances and rules), then how about some help with financing (with such help maybe being not much more than doing something with the 12% amusement tax – my interpretation).*
The session on restoring Wrigley Field was jammed – because Cubs fans care about their park, and I think they were happy with what they saw and heard.
The “Meet Cubs Baseball Management” session was what you would expect. “Theo and the boys” are following the plan they set last year, and things seem to be progressing. Theo Epstein talked a lot about the “Cubs Way” of playing baseball. This is a big deal, and it’s important. It’s also not the punch line of a joke, as it could have been in the past. When Lou Piniella was manager, he would complain about young pitchers who would come up from the minors and not know how to hold runners on base. And there have been infielders who wouldn’t know how to properly turn a double play.
The idea of the “Cubs Way” is to make sure this doesn’t keep happening. The Cubs Way includes a manual on how to play the game and, especially, how to teach the game. All of the coaches in the minors will follow the same philosophy (like on hitting) and use the same terms when they are teaching the players. This is something that has been missing in the Cubs organization for years. And it is, I believe, a reason why there needed to be a turnover in people in the minor league system. The Cubs have been drafting good players over the last six-to-seven years, but they didn’t seem to be developing them once they were drafted, at least based on what was coming out of the minor league system. This is what the “Cubs Way” is designed to deal with. I’m glad to see it.
One thing that was not specifically spelled out, but that seems pretty clear to me is the way the Cubs, at least last year, used mid-season trades to, in effect, “buy prospects”. When Theo, et al, came to the Cubs, they were planning on upgrading the team by spending lots and lots of money on prospects, both in the amateur draft and internationally. Right after they came, however, the new collective bargaining agreement put the kybosh on that. The collective bargaining agreement put very strict limits put on the amounts that can be paid to draft choices or on international signing. If a team “overspends” one year on draft choices, they lose draft choices the next year. So what the Cubs did last year, when they traded Ryan Dempster, etc., was to play a lot of the his remaining salary and get a prospect in return. Instead of dumping salary, there were, in effect, buying prospects. In the case of Paul Maholm, they used the one year and two months left on his contract to “buy” a prospect.
I saw Jim Deshaies, the new color guy on TV, at the Stats Sunday session. He is going to be really good. He could almost get me to listen to the Cubs on TV, instead of the radio. I almost feel sorry for Houston, both moving to the American League and losing him, except it’s Houston, so I don’t.
A comment on the new venue, the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. The Cubs did this because they are establishing a partnership with the Starwood hotel group. The Cubs will be staying at Sheratons on the road. The Ricketts are hoping to build a boutique hotel with the Starwood group across the street from Wrigley Field. That’s fine, but the Sheraton isn’t going to work in the future. It worked for the Convention this year\ because the 2012 season was so bad, crowds were down. When the Cubs get better and the crowds increase, the Sheraton isn’t going to be able to handle it.
One final comment. Cubs’ management understands that being a Cubs fan is a generational thing. They talked about it in the Restoring Wrigley Field session, and the Ricketts mentioned it. Jed Hoyer even mentioned it in “Meet Cubs Baseball Management”. Jed Hoyer talked about how they want to build a core of a team that will stay together for a long time. They see how Cubs fans love the late 60s team and that is what they want to do, too. (Dallas Green never did understand that, which is one reason why it did not work out for him in Chicago.)
I appreciate that they get this about Cubs fans, but they keep getting one thing terribly wrong when they do it. They talk about grandfathers and fathers and sons. AND THAT’S NOT RIGHT! It’s not just grandfathers, it’s grandmothers. It’s not just dads, it’s moms. And it is not just sons, it’s daughters, too! I don’t just take my son to where I went with my dad, I take my daughter, too. Because being a Cubs fan is for everybody.
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* The Cubs were not complaining about landmark preservation restrictions, but other things that interfere with their ability to make money. The theory is, I guess, if you want us to spend our own money, you have to let us use our property to make money. For some of the use restrictions the Cubs are apparently talking about, see Paul Sullivan’s article here.
UPDATE (1/20/13 11:01 pm): One more thing: Darwin Barney said during WGN Radio’s Sports Night on Friday evening that he was told just a few days after the season was over that he had won the Gold Glove for N.L. second basemen, and he had to keep it quiet until it was announced on October 30.
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