Dear Tom Ricketts (and your dad and your sister and whoever else is going to own the Cubs in a month or so),
I see from credible reports (wait, Carrie wrote that? Oops.) that you and the Tribune Company are getting close to completing the first part of the sale of the Cubs, and I know that then there’s the not so easy process of selling it to the many Tribune creditors, and then the mere formality of getting the owners to sign off on letting you join their snobatorium. They’re all really excited because if you really do pay $900 million for the Cubs, the value of their franchises all just went way up. (Even if there aren’t very many people left who could ever afford to buy their franchises.)
For one, I can’t understand why you would tie up nearly a billion dollars in a luckless sports franchise during the worst economy since, well, the last time the Cubs were good. Oh, maybe that’s it.
So since you guys seem hell bent on buying the Cubs, the least I could do would be to give you some advice. I can even back it up with cash, if you need a minority owner, I could have like $1,200 scraped together on a week’s notice, so keep that in mind.
So here goes, completely unsolicited advice, everybody’s favorite kind.
- Free up some money to add even more to the payroll during the upcoming season
Teams like the Padres are already worried they can’t afford their current payrolls, just wait until teams who are used to having decent walk-up ticket sales find out that they can’t rely on that money this season. Players with multi-year deals are the most likely to get dangled, and prospects won’t be the scarce commodity, the ability to take on salary will. So even though you have a $130 million payroll, the willingness to take it to $145 or $150 might get you a couple of difference makers during the season.
- End the senseless ‘celebrity seventh inning stretch singers’
This was a bad idea in 1998 and it’s a bad idea now. For one thing it turns your radio and TV announcers into the hosts of a bad talk show for one entire inning, second, most of the time the celebrity isn’t really a celebrity. If I ever have to hear Jim Belushi or Tom Dreesen ever hack their way through the song and the interviews, ever again, I might just have to kill myself. Here’s a novel idea, just have Gary Pressy play the song on the organ and let the fans sing along. Hell, you could probably find a sponsor and let them publicize the fact they put an end to that schlock. In fact, that $1,200 I offered you? I’d pay you that to call it the Desipio Do It Yourself Seventh Inning Stretch.
- Deport Ronnie Woo Woo
So what if he’s supposedly a native born American citizen? He hardly speaks English, and he wears polyester-spandex pants (with blue stirrups no less) every day. How hard would it be to convince someone from immigration that Ronnie’s French? They’d love him over there. I think Woo is an actual French word, he smells like a Frenchman and Paris has lots of windows he can wash. Only the Cubs would think that having a homeless derelict hang around trespassing on their property is “cute.” Besides, an entire generation of Cubs fans have grown up thinking that Ronnie Woo Woo is Ernie Banks. I’m not sure which one should be more insulted.
- No more games on WGN-TV
I know it’s blasphemy to think that the Cubs wouldn’t have home games on WGN, and most of that is because the myth still remains that it’s how fans from Iowa to California get to watch the Cubs. Truth is, cable systems all over the country have been dropping WGN the last few years, mainly because “Superstation” WGN sucks. Who doesn’t love the Rockford Files, or The Cosby Show? Apparently, cable operators, that’s who. DirecTV, who offers more HD channels than anybody, doesn’t offer WGN in HD nationwide, because they don’t show much stuff in HD. It’s pretty much just the Cubs and the WGN News at 9. WGN shows Bulls and Blackhawks games, but none of the Blackhawks games can be shown on the Superstation version of the network (thanks to the wonderful NHL contract with Versus) and only a handful of the Bulls games are shown that way.
So here’s the deal, unless WGN can figure out how to get their HD feed picked up throughout the country, and until they commit to covering the Cubs the way Comcast SportsNet Chicago does (you know, with an actual postgame show), screw them. Move all of the games to Comcast.
Here’s who is going to complain. 1) People who don’t have cable or a satellite dish. 2) People with cable or a satellite dish who don’t live in the Chicago area who are too cheap to subscribe to MLB Extra Innings. In both cases, if they’re unwilling to upgrade, they don’t like the Cubs enough. If they did, they’d do what it takes to see them.
I know that the Tribune Company has been trying to get you to agree to a longterm deal with WGN TV and radio as part of the sale terms. Honestly, they have to. If WGN TV loses the Cubs they’ll disappear on the few cable systems they still exist on. So give them the ultimatum. If they can’t upgrade their coverage, they’re out. The company as a whole is in too deep of financial dog doo to kill the deal over this kind of dispute.
- Address the two huge problems with Cubs games on WGN Radio
No, not the presence of weaselly little Dave Kaplan, he’s the third problem. The first two are even more glaring.
First, I have as much affection for Ron Santo as the next guy, and I’m not advocating dumping him from the broadcasts. I have a better idea. It came to me during a couple of games this past summer when Pat Hughes ended up having to work alone. Ron was out sick and Dave Otto couldn’t find anybody to take his shift at the car wash, and Pat had to do the game solo. He was, as we have always suspected, tremendously good. It was a pleasure to listen to him. So here’s the idea. Let Ron come to the games, let him sit in the booth, put a microphone in front of him, but don’t broadcast what he says live. Just record them, then edit them into the highlights at the end of the game. We love to listen to him scream and yell and moan during big moments in the game, it’s the rest of the broadcast that we can do without. Him forgetting what the score is, or what team the Cubs are playing or leaving the booth for ten minutes then coming back and making Pat help him update his scorecard player by player. Ron will still be there, what he says will be recorded for posterity, but we won’t have to listen to him ruin the broadcast every day. It’s genius, I know. Take this idea, give me back my $1,200 and leave Desipio’s name on the singerless seventh inning stretch. Deal!
Second, take that fucking fax machine they have in the booth and throw it out the window. This is not 1994. Who the hell even has a fax machine to send Pat and Ron faxes anymore? What the hell? How about the Square D Carrier Pigeon relay? Or the Square D telegraph?
- No more bleacher seat season ticket sales
First, who the hell is dumb enough to pay that kind of coin to sit in the bleachers every game anyway? Well, we all know a couple, I suppose. If you’re going to pay a premium for your seats, how about one with a back? How about one that isn’t a minimum of 370 feet from home plate? It doesn’t make you a “real fan” to sit out there, it makes you a dumbass. The other benefit of eliminating their ability to buy season tickets for the bleachers is that they can’t sit in the same spot every game because they wouldn’t be getting into the park earlier. They should go back to selling the bleacher seats the day of the game like they did in the good old days, but even if they just held a number of them for sale the day of the game that would be cool. But it’s almost like they purposely hold some back and then scalp those tickets themselves. Huh? Nah. Anyway, I just the like the idea of them screwing anybody dumb enough to want to buy a season’s worth of bleacher tickets.
- Gut the grandstand from pole to pole
Given the historical landmark status that Wrigley “enjoys” it’ll be tough to accomplish any kind of complete remodel of Wrigley Field. It’s not just the outfield wall, the manual scoreboard and the red marquee that are protected, it’s all kinds of architectural details, even the weird, hideous, concrete baffling on the exterior down each foul line. While it would be nice to carefully take down the marquee and then get a wrecking ball and smash the shit out of the entire grandstand section, you can’t do that. And, next, I suppose Blair Kamin will tell us that the city somehow got the piss troughs protected too. But you, the new owners will be faced with only one real alternative. Gut the grandstand from one foul pole all the way behind home plate and down the other pole. Lighten up the concourses, add some bathrooms so you don’t have to miss an inning and a half to take a piss (I pity anyone who’s had to drop a deuce in that place, truly pity them), and here’s a novel idea, how about adding some actual edible food in the concessions? Most of the hot dogs in that place look like something out of a deleted Don Ameche nude scene from “Cocoon.” It’s not like Chicago is reknowned for its food or anything, gee how could you ever get something decent to eat in the park?
I’m not asking for much, after all it’s a ballpark, it should be full of ballpark food. But it’s embarrassing that Milwaukee’s cased meats are so much better than the ones on sale at Wrigley. We don’t even need their overrated “special sauce.” (As if everybody doesn’t know it’s one part Worcestershire, four parts ketchup and one part Bud Selig hair tonic.)
As for the beer selection? My colon certainly has enjoyed Old Style even back to my NIU days, and Budweiser has always sucked. I like how they’re now selling an “American Ale.” The ad for that should just read, “Hey, we finally made a beer that isn’t just some watered down Clydesdale piss that frat boys can’t get enough of!” The rise of the microbrew over the past couple of decades just serves as a reminder that Americans know how to make beer, and it doesn’t look, smell or taste anything like Miller or Bud. You claim to have come to hundreds of Cubs games, you figure it out.
- Two words, Jumbo Tron
Every time I’m at Wrigley I wonder why a Jumbotron hasn’t been added yet. Most fans figure you have to put it in center field, or somewhere else in the outfield, but there are two pretty logical places for them at Wrigley Field and they won’t block anybody’s view.
Why not install one on top of the grandstand roof down each line? The lights end with ample room to spare at the far end down each line. It wouldn’t surprise me if the rickety grandstand roof would collapse, but you know, presumably you’ll be fixing that. Put one there, everybody in the park ought to be able to see one or the other (save for some saps in the rear rows of the upper grandstand down each line). Here’s the only catch. We don’t need any sound on those things. If I ever go to Wrigley Field and have to watch a “highlight” reel of Manny Alexander caught in another rundown with Yakety Sax playing, I’m going to burn Wrigley to the ground. It would be nice to see a replay once in a while, but we don’t need the mind blowing cocophany of sound to accompany it. Plus, you can sell a shitload of ads on that thing. That ought to make you happy.
- Top of the first intro music
For almost 25 years (much to Todd Wellemeyer’s chagrin) the Cubs ran out in the top of the first to Van Halen’s “Jump.” Nobody knew why. Then, last year the Cubs changed it to some mindless Bon Jovi tune. You know, much like food, Chicago is actually known for music. How about something from a band from Chicago? Hell, let Len Kasper pick it, he could agonize over it for a month.
Speaking of that, I have only one small problem with the new tradition of playing “Go Cubs Go” after home wins. And it’s not that Steve Goodman wrote the song as a fuck you to Dallas Green. It has always struck me odd that the fans sing the song after the game, especially since a prominent line in its opening says “Hey Chicago, whaddaya say, the Cubs are going to win today.” Maybe it’s perfect for Cubs fans to boldly declare the Cubs are going to win, only after they’ve already won. Yeah, just pretend that was done on purpose.
- Lose the blue jersey
One of my favorite things John McDonough did in his one season as president of the Cubs was to take the terrible blue ‘alternate’ jersey out of circulation. Those things suck. They look childish and just…well, they suck. I understand that baseball wants its teams to have an alternate jersey as a way of (gasp!) selling more jerseys. And I know plenty of dipshits who have bought the blue monstrosities. But if the Dodgers and Yankees can tell MLB to go screw on that account, so can the Cubs. Home whites and road grays are the way baseball was intended to be played. Besides, the home Cubs uniform is one of the best, if not the best in baseball. To throw a dumbass blue jersey on instead is blasphemous. And, if baseball insists, then bring back a cool alternate like one based on the road uniforms in the ’40s (think of the Norman Rockwell painting), or something hideous like the baby blue pinstripes of the ’70s.
And we never needed the dumbass red bill on the road caps. Shit can those, too, while you’re at it.
- Fire Crane Kenney
I think you’re going to do this, but I just want to make sure. Crane certainly thinks he’s staying, but reports that you want to bring Sandy Alderson in would run contrary to that. This efete Massachusetts prick needs to hit the bricks. Any clown confused enough to get his undergrad degree at Notre Dame and then go to fucking Michigan for his law degree needs a nick kick to the crotch. I’m sure he’ll try to dazzle you with all of his talk of how well the Cubs have done since he got his senior vice president title, but the truth is that the company he works for ran this team into the ground for two decades before they finally acted like a real team once they knew they were going to sell it. They were unwilling to spend for a winner until they felt they could spend somebody else’s (in this case, yours) money while they did it. It was thanks to their incompetence that they ended up writing checks for at least two years more than they ever intended to. The sooner every last reminder of the Tribune’s occupancy of the franchise is gone, the better.
So there you go, unsolicited advice from a random dope. Don’t worry, I’ll have more.
Love,
Andy
Fuckin A
“Here’s who is going to complain. 1) People who don’t have cable or a satellite dish. 2) People with cable or a satellite dish who don’t live in the Chicago area who are too cheap to subscribe to MLB Extra Innings. In both cases, if they’re unwilling to upgrade, they don’t like the Cubs enough. If they did, they’d do what it takes to see”
I can’t have a satellite dish…I live in a condo with huge trees off my south-facing deck. I have AT&T Uverse, and they show Cubs games (on Comcast) during spring training, but they’re blacked out during the regular season.
The only place you can purchase MLB Extra Innings is from DirecTV. I tried to purchase MLB.TV to watch them on my computer, but that’s blacked out too. I live in Indianapolis, and MLB apparently thinks I need to drive 4 hours 81 times a year to watch the Cubs in person. Would you be willing or able to do that if you worked 50 hours a week and were taking 18 credit hours in college?
Please pardon me while I complain.
I can get extra innings on Comcast – just not in HD.
Well Smitty, I guess you’re just going to have to move, or watch the games on the Interwebs, which is exactly how we’ll all be watching TV in ten years anyway.
More homes in the US and Canada can get Extra Innings than can get WGN.
Here’s who offered Extra Innings last year once Bud backed out of the exclusive agreement with DirecTV.
MLB Extra Innings is available with these cable and satellite providers:
* United States:
o DirecTV
o iN DEMAND
+ Bright House Networks
+ Cablevision (iO)
+ Charter Communications
+ Comcast
+ Cox Communications
+ Midcontinent Communications
+ RCN
+ Suddenlink Communications
+ Time Warner Cable
+ Verizon FiOS
+ WOW!
* Canada:
o Bell TV
o Access Communications
o Cogeco
o Rogers Cable
o Vidéotron
* Mexico
o SKY
* Dominican Republic
o SKY
* Chile
o DirecTV Chile
There are probably many people like myself who can’t afford the $50 a month extra to get the non-WGN games. Why not use one of those fancy new HD broadcast channels as a sports only channel. Broadcast every Cubs game, a handful of White Sox games (you know, the ones where the Cubs are playing the Sox) some Hawks and Bulls games. In the downtime, rebroadcast some classic games from the past or special sporting programming and its a win-win situation. You can still broadcast the games on CSN and charge more for advertising as you will potentially be reaching a larger audience.
I really don’t need a JumboTron… hell, it’s not like you won’t be able to see instant replays on your iPhones within two or three years anyways…
But if we’re going that route, the most logical place for one is on top of the building where the old Torco sign was located (which now houses a billboard for Milwaukee-brewed moose urine).
Andy, I am not sure if you implied this in your article, but the Cubs are doing away with the red bill on road hats this season.
Anyways, good stuff and I agree with a lot of it.
“First, who the hell is dumb enough to pay that kind of coin to sit in the bleachers every game anyway? Well, we all know a couple, I suppose.”
Well, one anyways.
And he’s off on a bologna run right now. Would you like to leave a message?
Re: Deporting Ronnie Woo Woo
On the corner of Clark and Addison is a Maker’s Mark billboard that states:
Makers Woo!
Makers Woo!
I still can’t believe it. Maybe the billboard was put up by Jim Beam???
They’ll never get rid of bleacher season tickets, since they know a fool and his money were lucky to ever get together in the first place.
If you live in Indianapolis, Extra Innings and MLB.TV both black out the Cubs, not to mention the Sox, Reds, and (I believe) Cardinals. I’d be all for moving games off WGN. Watching baseball — or anything else — in SD sucks, but MLB needs to review the blackout regions. I don’t think blacking out 3 or 4 teams in my city is doing whatever the blackout rules are intended to do.
to anyone worried about blackouts for mlb.tv, just put you address as being from tucson or something, black out the diamondbacks. thats what ive been doing for the past 3 years and it works fine
You can watch the Cubs in Chile?
We have WGN in HD, but sports and the news are the only things in HD.
We’re not limited to buying blue jerseys. We also buy Fukudome jerseys.
Speaking of cased meats, how about hiring Hot Doug’s to cater the concessions, or maybe some of the tube steaks from the Paulina Market?
You can’t list a BS address to avoid blackout restrictions on MLB.tv. They go by your IP address. I moved from Maine in the middle of the year last year, never changed my registration info, and my blackouts went from being northeast games to midwest games.
Also, don’t call anyone cheap if they’re unwilling to shell out $120 bucks for a baseball package when half the country has been laid off. Maybe if they start offering it a la carte and you can just get the Cubs or whatever your home team is, then we’ll talk. But for now sack up and watch the game on WGN and fine something important to bitch about.
Somebody get Dan some Sensodyne.
Oh, and two words for your blackout problem — proxy server. Google it, it’ll be your friend.
Why not put Santo-Putz in front of a microphone with the volume off, and hire a real radio announcer.
I just pay a friend who lives in england to register for mlb.tv. Then he emails me his username and password and all works fine for me.
There is a 3rd group of us that want Cubs games on WGN: those of us who live in “blackout” regions and get blacked out from every cubs game on any package. I live 3 blocks away from the Milwaukee city limits. WGN is the only means to actually watch a game in that instance because apparently any WI city south of Milwaukee is a “cubs” area… even though comcast doesn’t even operate up here.
Are the blackout rules a pile of shit? Yep, they are.
2) People with cable or a satellite dish who don’t live in the Chicago area who are too cheap to subscribe to MLB Extra Innings. In both cases, if they’re unwilling to upgrade, they don’t like the Cubs enough.
I’m with Dan R., times are tight and $120 for a Cubs games package is steep. Besides, I can’t get MLB Extra Innings on Mediacom cable anyway. Leave WGN alone for us out of towners because that’s all we’ve got.
Deport Ronnie and flush Old Style? I know they’re both “cute” lame Cubs traditions, but without all that crap, we may as well sip appletinis at the Busch stadium Casino Queen Party Porch.