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.