The more I hear the Cubs’ owner talk, the more I weep for the future of this franchise. Today, in the midst of describing Ryne Sandberg to the media (without describing Ryne Sandberg), Ricketts let out this fun gem.
“We have to have a manager who really understands what it is to be the Cubs manager, the pressure, the scrutiny you get and be able to handle those periods in June when you lose three games in a row and people start talking about Year 103 of the curse.”
Just what we need to hear about, the mysterious curse. Tom, this is supposed to be “Year One”. I thought the past results didn’t matter anymore. Here’s the problem, just last year, when he was taking over ownership of the Cubs, Ricketts claimed for all to hear.
“There is no curse. There is no curse. There is no curse. If anybody on our team thinks he’s cursed, we’ll move him to a lesser cursed team. We’re not gonna put up with that. Cubs fans have to look forward, not backward. From this day forward let’s just get that behind us.”
So which is it Tom? Is this team cursed, so much so that an already cursed person must manage the team? Or, is talk of a curse so ridiculous that it should never be mentioned by an employee of the Cubs? You say you want to look forward, yet you reference a number you claimed 11 months ago was irrelevant.
Maybe Ricketts could go buy a less cursed team, since those who mentioned curses are going to be run out of town. It’s been way downhill since that opening press conference, which I thought was really strong, and recently it just gets worse every time Tom Ricketts talks to the media.
Tom Ricketts, there is no curse here, you said so yourself. Hiring the new manager, or anything else related to running this baseball team, shouldn’t have the prerequisite of “knowing how to be a Cub”. If anything, the Cubs should be running as far away from their loser past as they can. Hiring one of the most famous losers doesn’t change the fact that he was a loser, and losing a ton of games at Wrigley Field doesn’t make a person more qualified to run the Chicago Cubs.
At least I didn’t think it did.