Chicago Cubs: Thoughts on an offseason filled with wrong kind of news

Chicago Cubs: Only headlines coming from Wrigley are political

There’s no questioning the Ricketts family’s clout in the city of Chicago. They’ve poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the Wrigleyville neighborhood, generating lord only knows how much in revenue for the city and surrounding businesses over much of the last decade.

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Their history with 44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney is fairly well-documented. To put it mildly, there’s no love lost between ownership and their elected representative on the City Council. But that’s come to a head recently, with the Ricketts launching a passionate campaign to oust Tunney, who has represented the area since 2003.

“Working with the alderman has not been very easy,” Ricketts told WSCR AM-670 earlier this year. “The fact is that from the very beginning, from the very first sign in left field to fighting us on the rooftops to fighting us on stadium renovations and doing the scoreboards to fighting us on creating the Gallagher Way Plaza outside to fighting us on not allowing us to have the same rules that the other bars in the neighborhood have for our club.”

We all remember the seemingly endless back-and-forth over the signage and subsequent video boards. It wasn’t pretty. But, ultimately, the Chicago Cubs came out on top and the team installed two massive videoboards and signage down the left field line as part of the 1060 Project – a complete overhaul of the Friendly Confines, set to conclude this year.

I get where Ricketts is coming from as a private business owner. It makes sense. But in an offseason where his franchise is seemingly making missteps at every turn, why turn his showdown with Tunney into an even bigger deal than it already was? Easy – because it’s election year.

“I think anyone who lives in the 44th Ward should ask themselves, ‘Why can’t we do better?’ ” Ricketts said. “And there are a couple candidates who are running, and take a look at ’em is what I would say. I just kind of think that I’d like to imagine a ward and a city where we have new leadership and some better leadership, and it would be a better place.”

Could the 44th Ward do better? That’s for its residents to decide – not Tom Ricketts.

Chicago Cubs: Ricketts’ emails draw intense criticism from all sides

In early February, Splinter News reported a stream of offensive emails from Joe Ricketts, father of Tom Ricketts and his siblings – who own the Chicago Cubs. Joe himself has no stake in the organization, but the connection is still fairly clear.

I’ll let you choose whether or not to read the content of said emails. Suffice to say, they’re chock-full of racist, Islamaphobic rhetoric that has no place in today’s society. Since they were made public, Ricketts and the Chicago Cubs organization has been taking near-constant fire from all sides of the political spectrum.

“I deeply regret and apologize for some of the exchanges I had in my emails,” he said in a statement. “Sometimes I received emails that I should have condemned. Other times I’ve said things that don’t reflect my value system. I strongly believe that bigoted ideas are wrong.”

Ownership quickly tried to put as much distance as possible between the club and their father, releasing a statement of their own.

“We are aware of the racially insensitive emails in my father’s account that were published by an online media outlet,” Tom Ricketts said Monday. “Let me be clear: The language and views expressed in those emails have no place in our society. My father is not involved with the operation of the Chicago Cubs in any way. I am trusted with representing this organization and our fans with a respect for people from all backgrounds. These emails do not reflect the culture we’ve worked so hard to build at the Chicago Cubs since 2009.”

In the days that followed, Ricketts met with leaders of the Chicago Muslim community, and, together, are “committed to the concrete steps, adding that he too had not wanted actions that were token or cliche but meaningful and heartfelt.”

The meeting – and subsequent actions – will hopefully help the community heal. But, at least right now, it’s the latest off-the-field issue to take center stage in a winter that once held nothing but intrigue and allure.

Spring can’t come too soon for the Chicago Cubs franchise and its fans. It’s been an offseason marred by scandal, disappointment and a lack of baseball-related items to be excited about. Let’s hope the leaders with the team can all learn from what has transpired and work to get the focus back where it should be: winning another World Series championship.