The Mirror Has Two Faces

It's always fun to be accused of wanting something so much that you look for any reason to think it will be possible.

But the fun subsides when the accuser is a serial perpetrator of just that mentality. I mean, when you read:

"the Cubs go on a tear starting the 2nd half (of 2005)"
"Even Chuck will have to stop and give Jim Hendry credit for (signing Rafael Furcal)"
"Good things are coming."
"My sources say that Jim Hendry is indeed working on a "couple" of deals"
"Patience"
"Keep the faith"

...all you can figure is that a mirror hasn't been used in years or that irony is something we don't get here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a, a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was tired of being stared at.
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Look. I have no idea if the Cubs will be sold or not. I do know the conditions are more aligned for a sale now, than they ever have been in the preceding 24 years (and fellow reality-based Cub blog 1060 West nicely summarizes the conditions -- including noting that other media companies have been shedding sports investments left and right). I also know that a sale would bring hope to Cubs fans for a real chance to use all the resources at the team's disposal to bring a winner.

(As an aside: Don't the people who say the Cubs are a cash cow for the Trib see that those profits could instead be plowed into the team's payroll? Aren't these are the same people who said that spending $13 million for Furcal was insane?)

Yes, I hope this team is sold. So should everyone. Those that defend the status quo aren't really Cubs fans. They are probably more, "Cubs GAME fans," in that they love going to the game first, and hope the Cubs win second.

What these people really fear from a sale is that a new owner won't like a stadium with only 40,000 seats, minimal (and cramped) skyboxes, and minimal sources for in-stadium advertising revenue.

They fear the end of Wrigley Field.

And that would destroy being a Cubs Game Fan. After all, what's special about going to Landmark Theater Park in Barrington? These fears are baseless. Wrigley is going nowhere. Sure, it may need to be shuttered for a year to redo the upper deck's concrete before there is a $75 million payment to a fan who ends up in a similar situation to the people who were outside the Hancock a few years back.

But a new owner is either going to have the bucks to afford Wrigley's limitations, or is going to need the safety that Wrigley provides -- 1 million tickets sold annually to tourists.

Relax. You have nothing to fear but fear itself. A sale may or may not be coming. If it does, we fans are no worse off than we are right now.

The greater likelihood is that the new owner will have something the Trib lacks - egomania.

The real problem with the Trib as an owner is that there is no Ted Turner running the Trib. There's no guy who looks at the Cubs as a plaything. As their yacht. Dennis FitzSimmons is attempting to run a global media company for his shareholders (and if he doesn't start doing it better, he won't be running it much longer). And to milk the Cubs is the right thing for him to do.

That's not in the fans' best interest.

The greater likelihood is that a new owner will want to be the guy that breaks the curse. He wants to be the guy who is smarter than Theo Epstein. He wants to be the guy who wins more often than George Steinbrenner.

Let's hope we get that owner. Most of us deserve it.