643 Sports - Chicago Sports Franchises (Cubs)

One of our main topics for tonight's show is going to be an overview of how Chicago sports franchise have been run in the past 10-15 years both positive and negative.

I was hoping to get some of your guys opinion on your respective franchises, since 1995 how do you feel the Chicago Cubs have been ran? Have they done a good job, have you been disappointed? What should they have done?

Remember this is still a franchise without a World Series championship in over 100 years and also a franchise that had 2 golden opportunities in the last 15 years to do so.

Is this a call in or email kind of thing?

This is a post it right here thing if you'd like.

Whatever you'd prefer. If you want to save it for the show and call in feel free. If you want to PM me you can also do that, but I was also hoping to get some discussion going on here as well. We'll use stuff from here on the show.

We're mainly trying to get some jump off points and see how other people have viewed the performance of Chicago sports franchises in the last decade or 15 years. We have our opinions, but what really drives the show is the listeners or your guys thoughts on the matter.

Personally, the Cubs have not been ran well. There have been some issues with personnel, and they have too many veterans. Sam Zell wanted to win now so the Cubs could sell for more money, and this wasn't good for the organization. Hendry has made some great moves, but also questionable ones, and Piniella is long past his time. The Cubs need a major front office shakeup with Bob Brenly managing and Greg Maddux as the GM.

Is this ok?

It's not homework guys, post whatever you'd like. Lefty and I just want to see the general pulse of other fans and how they feel their franchise has done in the past 5, 10, 15 years.

Thanks for the opinions though.

Did the near WS berth in 2003 or the back to back division titles in 07 & 08 change any of your thoughts about the franchise?

The Cubs have been run better the last 15 years then they did the other 87 years before then.. They have chances to get to the World Series and they have had alot more winning seasons but until they get that TITLE they will always be looked at as a bad run team...

Well there have been a lot of good moves and bad moves. I'd say it's about 50/50 on how it has been ran. I'm glad the Tribune company is no longer the principal owners of the club because they always seemed hesitant to open there wallets. Jim Hendry has been good and bad about getting players since he took over. He has signed some players that have been good (Alfonso Soriano) but haven't produced, and on top of signing them for big money the years given to them have been ridiculous. We had some good pitchers in Prior and Wood but never a strong supporting cast around them minus some one year wonders (I'm looking at you Lieber and Tapani) with the Cubs. We brought back Maddux for a few years which was huge in terms of letting him come back and win some more games with the club. We let Mark Grace go who led all of baseball in hits in the 90's because they refused to pay him.

I will add more to this later on.

Say the Cubs continue at the pace they are at now. Contending, hovering around but never winning a World Series.

Do you eventually stop following them as much, attend some less games, buy less merchandise or do you feel your fandom will stay relatively the same no matter how the product is?

FedEx227 said:

Say the Cubs continue at the pace they are at now. Contending, hovering around but never winning a World Series.

Do you eventually stop following them as much, attend some less games, buy less merchandise or do you feel your fandom will stay relatively the same no matter how the product is?

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I've done that already. I've learned my lesson with this team - Never expect anything. If you expect the Cubs to win you're only setting yourself up for disappointment.

I still follow them closely and watch games, but I've actually conditioned myself to not be bothered by their winning or losing. When they got swept by LA in 2008, it didn't bother me nearly as much as it would have, say in 2004 or 2003. But by the time 2008 rolled around I just got fed up with this team and their choking ways.

I still love the Cubs, but I don't live and die with them anymore. You'll mostly die.