Tag: wrigleyville

The Only Thing Tom Ricketts Threatened Was Some People’s Delicate Sensibilities

The Cubs released more renderings of what they would like Wrigley to look like after the renovations they've been planning for four years are complete. There was nothing earth-shattering. We already knew what a jumbo video board would theoretically look like thanks to amateur fans with Photoshop skills. This version had lights on the top of it. Neat.

Of course, Tom Ricketts spoke optimistically that these plans would eventually come to fruition. He expressed confidence in the work they had already done with Tom Tunney and Rahm Emanuel to hash out the outlines of a plan that could get final approval from the next 800 layers of Chicago government bureaucracy. This presentation was barely any more interesting than any of the other renovation presentations the Cubs have subjected us to over the last four years.

Except for one little Ricketts quote, per the Chicago Tribune:

"I'm not sure how anyone is going to stop the signs in the outfield, but if it comes to the point that we don't have the ability to do what we need to do in our outfield then we're going to have to consider moving. It's as simple as that."

And that is pretty much all anyone has taken from the whole shebang.

The Tribune headline:

Ricketts threatens to move Cubs without OK for Wrigley upgrades

The Sun-Times:

Tom Ricketts threatens to take Cubs and go elsewhere

The Daily Herald:

Cubs chairman threatens to move team from Wrigley Field

ESPN Chicago actually played it cooler:

Cubs may ponder Wrigley exit

But then I saw the URL that indicated a much stronger headline from earlier in the day: http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/9230531/tom-ricketts-chicago-cubs-threatens-leave-wrigley-field-outfield-signage-not-approved

OH MY GOD!! RICKETTS IS A MONSTER!!!

At least, that is the sense most fans are given when, at some point in the day, every single major media outlet covering the Cubs screamed a variation of the word "threaten" to describe Tom Ricketts' quote as they strove to drive traffic to their sites.

But is it really a "threat?" The media seems to want to have you believe it is. And they also seem to think it is an empty one. The collective clucking of the tongues at Tom Ricketts' perceived impudence is almost deafening.

Tack on about a billion similar tweets from riled-up fans, and the consensus is that the Earth will plunge into the sun before the Cubs would EVER leave Wrigley. 

The problem is that Wrigley won't exist forever. There is a time coming when Wrigley will eventually start falling apart again and fans will be in physical danger if they set foot in the place. It's almost a certainty. Those nets aren't hanging there as some reminder of the Golden Age of Baseball where all the stadiums had nets to protect fans from falling concrete. As I said in the comments the other day, the place is LITERALLY falling apart. Not figuratively. Actual concrete is actually crumbling. This is not a condition that tends to fix itself over time. Something must be done or somebody will end up getting hurt. And soon.

It is clear the Cubs will not get government funding like many other sports teams have received over the years. You can argue whether that is right or wrong, but no matter your opinion, it isn't an option for the Cubs. Period.

The new plan involves the Cubs paying for it themselves, but then being allowed to run their business like a normal business without a billion roadblocks in their way intended to benefit everyone in the neighborhood but the Cubs. They want a few extra night games and the ability to charge corporations for placing some signs in their ballpark. You know, LIKE EVERY OTHER MAJOR LEAGUE TEAM THAT HAS EVER EXISTED. But nothing about that plan is certain. The rooftops have been talking about suing and you can bank on someone that needs to give approval will hold this up for their own agenda. This is Chicago, afterall, lest we forget.

So Ricketts is confident, but Ricketts is a Cubs fan. He knows what it is like to be five outs away from the World Series with a three-run lead and your ace on the mound and have everything go to hell. So what happens if it does?

What options are left? They can't get government funding and they won't be allowed to do it themselves (and let's not pretend that any owner anywhere would do this deal without having increased revenue streams to make it worth their whiles).

The options left on the table would then be: 1) Stay at Wrigley as is or 2) Move somewhere else.

They can only stay at Wrigley for so long. Meanwhile it will continue to be a dump for their players (a point that will be even more blatant when they start training in their state-of-the-art facility in Mesa, Arizona during the Spring) and they'll continue to be handcuffed by shitty advertising and TV revenues because nothing will have changed from the way it is today. Hooray. What a lovely option.

Seriously, the Cubs get pounded left and right for not acting like a "major market" team, but they aren't one. Not anymore. The scope of the game's economics has changed and selling 3 million tickets a year doesn't automatically put you in the "major market" class. 

Don't get me wrong, the team will get better than what they're putting out there now. They almost have to be once they restock the farm system at all the levels, but what sold Ricketts and a large portion of fans on the rebuild was that the Cubs would rebuild a core "the right way" and then use their significant financial muscles to add on where other teams in the division won't be able to afford to. Except now, the Cubs' financial muscles will be flabby and they won't be able to lift a wallet much better than what the Cardinals can do. That's a nice step forward as an organization, but I personally want to beat the fucking Cardinals. Regularly.

And even if that is all doom and gloom, how many years do we think Wrigley has left in it? Like I said, it is already literally falling apart. I shudder to think what some of the support structures might look like in the places of the stadium we don't see. Wrigley has a finite amount of time left and I'm of the opinion that time period is a lot shorter than anybody really wants to admit. The reason the price tag on this renovation is $500 million is because they aren't just slapping a coat of paint on it and calling it renovated. They'll be replacing or stabilizing key parts of the structure as well as digging out entire new areas under existing structures that were built on the understanding that solid ground would be below. That's going to take additional reinforcement. That gets expensive.

The only other stadium besides Fenway I could think of that was in a similar situation to Wrigley was Tiger Stadium. It was a beloved stadium that many Tigers fans still sorely miss, but the Tigers moved instead of renovating.  I got to wondering why. I found out through my Google machine that they had a couple of plans that would have been cheaper than the $300 million they ended up spending on Comerica Park.

One was the Cochrane Plan for an estimated $26 million:

The Tiger Stadium Fan Club, which claims 12,000 members, last year presented the lower-budget Cochrane Plan to the Tigers. The plan would:

  • Leave the first and second decks unchanged, including view-obstructing posts in front of some seats.
  • Build a third deck that would add 73 luxury suites.
  • Expand clubhouse, concession, rest room and office space.

That doesn't seem to address many structural issues. It sounds like they were just going to tack on a third deck onto an almost 100-year old stadium, so that doesn't sound overly sound to me and probably would have ended up costing a lot more than the $26 million estimated price tag.

A second renovation plan, proposed by Ann Arbor contractor Joe O'Neal and Birmingham architect Gunnar Birkerts, would cost $70 million-$95 million. Without interrupting play at the ballpark, that plan over three to four years would:

  • Remove all the support posts.
  • Expand concessions and restrooms.
  • Add a 400-seat stadium club and 200 luxury boxes.

This sounds closer to what the Cubs are planning, but it still doesn't involve changing the footprint of the stadium as the Cubs' does, nor does it involve digging under the existing structure and field.

At the end of the day, both plans seemed more or less like putting lipstick on a pig. They would be extending the use of the stadium for a few years through those changes, but eventually Tiger Stadium would fundamentally fail as old structures tend to do. Maybe that is why the Tigers ultimately didn't go that route. I'm sure the public funding of the new stadium, combined with the neighborhood around Tiger Stadium crumbling around it played into that decision as well.

But from what I'm seeing, it didn't look like there was a real viable long term plan to stay in Tiger Stadium even if the ownership and the city had been interested in doing so. Hence, they moved.

Likewise, if the Wrigleyville neighbors or greedy politicians submarine the latest plan to stay at Wrigley, I don't see any more long-term options for Wrigley Field. This is not Tom Ricketts necessarily saying he desires to take his ball and go home. He's saying that's what's left if this plan doesn't come together.

Everybody saying the Cubs moving would lose the loyalty of thousands of fans is correct. Finding a long-term viable solution to stay in Wrigley is the best solution for all the parties involved. But if that option is closed down, then what's left? Moving elsewhere. It's the only option that would be left on the table. It's not a threat. It's a fact.

***UPDATE***

Since writing most of this, the voice of the rooftops, Beth Murphy, has expressed optimism that maybe the Cubs and the rooftops can live happily ever after. Per Paul Sullivan:

“I think we’re at a point in the process where we’re just going to have to work out the details (of the plan),” Murphy said. “I no longer believe the Cubs want to block us. I wasn’t sure before, but I no longer believe that. I truly am optimistic they want to work this out.”

I don't know what Crane said or did to elicit that kind of quote from Murphy, but that right there may be the most productive thing he has ever done in his tenure with the Cubs. This is probably on par with if Alex Gonzalez had actually managed to turn that double play ball.

I'm not celebrating a done deal yet, but if she holds with this attitude (assuming the rest of the rooftops are also likewise impressed with Crane Kenny's… um… sincerity), this goes a long way to avoiding the doomsday scenario where the Cubs actually would have to start looking at other locations.

Cubs and Chicago Come to Agreement to Allow Wrigley to Be Less Shitty, More Expensive

When the Ricketts family first took over the Cubs, some of the first words out of their mouths were expressions of unbridled love of Wrigley Field. They were going to win and they were going to win in Wrigley Field. That was their story. Tom went around telling anybody who would listen that he once lived across the street from Wrigley. He skipped classes at University of Chicago to attend games, ultimately ending up taking five years to graduate as a result. He met his wife in the Wrigley bleachers.

The love Tom Ricketts felt for Wrigley was almost unnatural. I think part of the reason Joe and Pete so vehemently oppose gay marriage is that they fear the slippery slope that would eventually allow Tom to divorce his wife and marry Wrigley Field. 

Around these parts, we criticized this because it essentially removed all leverage the family had in negotiating with the city. They would ask for public funds. The city said no. They asked again and almost had a deal, then Joe fucked everything up with his Super PAC and hate of the President, who was coincidentally the Mayor's buddy.

Then the Cubs came out and said they'd pay for the whole thing themselves on the condition that they be allowed some wiggle room on the restrictions placed on it by city ordinances and landmark designations that turn every remodel of a urinal trough into a six month ordeal of community meetings and posturing in the media. Shockingly, the idea was met with scorn by Wrigley's neighbors and Tom Tunney, who tore himself away from counting the money in his pockets from the rooftop owners long enough to tell the Cubs to just replace the manual scoreboard with a videoboard if they want one that badly.

It was a Sisyphean ordeal all because there was never really an alternative for the Cubs. Rosemont offered them a crappy piece of land that nobody wants because it's practically on an O'Hare runway, so that wasn't ever really an option. So the Cubs were negotiating with people who basically kept poking them in the chest, kicking sand in their face, and asking, "What are you gonna do about it?"

So the agreement announced late last night that the Cubs and the City of Chicago have come to an agreement to allow the Cubs to spend $500 million of their own money on the crumbling ballpark is something of a minor miracle. Somewhere along the line, the city moved a bit, the Cubs moved a bit and they all ended up shaking hands with each other. And it only took three and a half years to add a couple of signs and a few more night games. Progress!

The agreement allows a number of changes that will help the Cubs separate us from even more of our money in the near future, per Carrie Muskat:

  • A 6,000 square foot video board will be placed in left field pretty much where the Toyota sign is now. They may place it further back over Waveland to decrease the impact on rooftop sightlines.
  • An additional sign will be added to right field that will be in the same kind of semi-see-through style as the current Toyota sign.
  • Those will be the only two additional outfield signs place instead of the original proposed seven signs.
  • They can play 10 more night games, bringing the total to 40.
  • There can be up to five more night games if national broadcasts dictate changes to the original schedule.
  • They can start Friday games at 3:05pm now.
  • They can close off Sheffield Ave. from 2 hours prior to the game until the 2nd inning.
  • The Captain Morgan Club will be rebuilt to be two stories to allow the visitor clubhouse to be expanded into that space plus additional space for a souvenir shop.
  • The corners of the park will be renovated to be more fan-friendly (translation: more places to sell stuff) along with upgrades to the existing crappy restaurant, The Sheffield Grill.

This is good news for the organization. It will allow them to sell their TV rights for more money when they get to that point because night games are more valuable. They'll hopefully have more space within the park to add some decent food and beverage options. As of right now, the closest thing to craft beer that they carry is Bud Light Lime-a-Ritas and Labatt's Blue (it's Canadian!). At least they aren't trying to call those "craft" beer like some teams. *cough* Yankees! *cough*

So while we will eventually be forking over larger amounts of our money to the Cubs, this allows them to sink the millions they need to into renovating the player facilities to bring them at least into the 20th century of modernization. It also provides them with the revenue capable of sustaining a larger payroll in the event they ever have players that actually require larger salaries.

So though I may be snarky about it because it is the Cubs and they have always shown an amazing capacity to fuck things up for themselves, this is a good day to be a Cubs fan. Finally.

***UPDATE***

The full approved proposal can be found here.

Tom Ricketts will hold a press conference today at 11:00am. Live streaming here.

Looking Back on Opening Day

Yesterday was my 15th straight Opening Day, and if I recall correctly, the 15th straight year I have frozen my ass off at Wrigley Field for the first game of the year.  To be fair, I'm sure there has been a somewhat warm Opening Day among those 15 years, but I sure as hell can't remember when they happened.  Yesterday was even halfway decent if you happened to be in the sun and not in direct line with the 25 mph wind that was howling in off the lake, so it turns out it might have actually been worth it to sit in the centerfield bleachers at $100+ per ticket.  But enough about my bitching about the weather, there is plenty left for me to bitch about.

Kris and I started our day by meeting up with her cousin and husband at Yak-zies.  I have normally avoided Yak-zies ever since they accused me and my friends for not paying for a round of drinks, that we not only did pay for, but we paid for them and tipped the waitress on the full round even though she had forgotten two of our drinks when she originally brought them, but that's where they had set up camp so we headed into the lion's den.

By the time we got there a little before 11:00, it was already a clusterfuck in there with a line to get in.  This is why the Ricketts want so desperatley to get some development going around the park that goes into their pockets.  There was a line to get into fucking Yak-zies.  People will literally go anywhere and pay anything to get their drink on for normal game days, and this was Opening Day, which is basically a holiday on the North Side.

We got in pretty quick (it is still Yak-zies afterall), and made our way over to meet our friends, who had made other friends by now.  Everybody was very nice, but clearly already drunker than anyone should probably be at eleven in the morning. While we were there, I engaged in some small talk and tried to gauge what the fans were expecting out of the season.  One guy who told me his name was Moe, was very optimistic.  He bet me a dollar that Soriano would finish the season batting .300 or better. He also expected Samardzija to suck, so he wasn't just vomiting rainbows.  Moe thinks they will win 76 games and he's going to owe me a dollar.

Another guy was happy to see "kids" like LaHair and Mather get chances on the team.

I heard another woman who was glad that Dempster would have a chance to be an ace without Zambrano "in the way."

There was lots of talk about how the Cubs could surprise a lot of people by being competitive in the division.  Ah, drunk talk. Sweet Opening Day drunk talk.

We had a couple of drinks (and paid for them) and headed on out to get our hats for the year.  We walked down Clark and as we went, you could practically smell the hope emanating throughout Wrigleyville.  Hope, as it turns out, smells a bit like puke.

As we reached Clark and Addison, we saw The Noodle in its new spot in the McRickett's parking lot. It had a lot of brown crap all over it, and I thought it was there to keep people from sliding on it.  It turns out the brown metal stuff nailed to the noodle is supposed to be bacon. I didn't think there was a way to make bacon sound unappetizing, but peppering metal representations of it onto a giant noodle that drunk people will be climbing all over managed to do the impossible.

Of course, that corner is also the new home of the Rickett's new souvenir shop that was hastily erected over the winter to draw in customers that normally would have shopped at SportsWorld, Wrigleyville Sports, or any of the other multiple souvenir shops scattered around Wrigley.  Tell us again how you want to help your fellow Wrigleyville business owners by building more competition to all of their business, Tom.

Of course, I don't really care who gets my money as long as I get a good hat for the year so we went in and checked it out.  

It turns out it is pretty nice in there.  They had a wide variety of items and the staff was far friendlier than most of the staff that I've encountered in the actual ballpark.  I found myself a fitted 1934 replica hat.

Kris found herself a gray-greenish hat with a pink C on the Clearance rack that she liked for $10. So we had our new hats for the year and the Ricketts now have more of our money.  You're welcome, Tom.

So now we were ready to go into the ballpark.  God help us.

The lines went smoothly, including the bag inspection for Kris (which is a welcome change from situations we have experienced in the past).

We headed on up and decided to partake of the ballpark's food offerings out on the sunny patio before settling into our freezing cold seats.  I had boycotted paying for food or beverage in Wrigley almost two years ago when I decided the Ricketts weren't going to get any extra money of mine until they did something other than just follow the Tribune's playbook like nothing had ever changed, so this was actually a fairly momentous occasion for my fandom, though I doubt anybody reading this gives a shit.

I went with a hotdog and a brat, and they were pretty much exactly as I remembered them being.  That's not a bad thing, but it isn't a good thing either.  Wrigley food will probably never be anything that tantalizes taste buds, but they were hot enough and the buns weren't stale, so they met the minimum requirement I have for stadium food.

Now it was time for the introductions.  We missed the Nationals getting introduced and I didn't hear any big crowd noise, so I'm not sure what other people have been talking about that DeRosa got a rousing ovation.  He might have, but I didn't hear it so it was quiet enough that it didn't carry out to the upper deck patio area.

Then it was the Cubs' intro time.  Most of the players got tepid polite applause.  Kerry Wood probably got the biggest ovation.  Garza, Dempster, and Castro were the next largest.  Soriano actually got cheers, and I didn't hear more than a couple of knuckleheads boo anybody.  I'm not sure if what surprised me more, the lack of booing for Soriano or the significantly rousing cheers saved for Jeff Samrdzija.  I don't know what he has done to enamor himself with the people of Chicago, but there is a large group of people who really like him.  Enjoy it while it lasts, buddy.

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
The highlight of the day came next as Bill Murray came out to toss the ceremonial first pitch and proceeded to "sprint" around the bases.  As he came down the line towards home, Kerry Wood gestured wildly for him to slide, and bill awkwardly obliged.  It's called dedication to a bit.  He then proceeded to toss a one-hopper to the plate after going through the standard comedian-pretending-to-be-a-big-league-pitcher gesticulations and left the field without suffering a heart attack.

As the game started, I set the over/under on Cubs hits for the day off Strasburg at 1.  Dempster proceeded to match that number on the first pitch as he gave up a leadoff single.  Then we all started getting that sinking feeling as he walked the next batter and had Ryan Zimmerman smoke a ball to center that would have left the atmosphere if the wind hadn't been blowing in with all its might.

Strasburg made quick work of DeJesus and Barney before giving up a weak pop-up to the mound from Castro. The problem was that he didn't seem inclined to catch it himself and none of the other Nationals' fielders could get there in time once they realized he wasn't going to try to catch it.  So there was the Cubs' first hit and Sandy Koufax's perfect game in September 1965 remains the last time the Cubs were no-hit for at least another couple of days.

After that, neither offense did much on their own accord.  The Nationals loaded the bases on an error and two walks in the third, but Dempster wriggled out of it.

In the fourth, Soriano managed a one-out single and the Nationals helped out with a little creative defense when they messed up a force play on a squib by Ian Stewart.  Unfortunately, the Cubs are hellbent and determined to add TOOTBLAN-apalooza to our vocabulary so Soriano was thrown out trying to steal third.  Jeff Baker followed with a walk, and Marlon Byrd blooped in a hit to left to score a run and the CUBS HAD THE LEAD!  HOLY SHIT!

It stayed that way for awhile.  The hitters for both teams seemed like they just wanted to go and get warm, and I wholeheartedly on board with that decision. I was wearing a thermal and two fleece sweatshirts and it was getting pretty unpleasant the longer we stuck it out so we couldn't be more pleased with how the game was rolling along.

Somewhere along the way in about the 6th or 7th inning, Kris noticed the right field video board for the first time all day.  Now, she is not one of those girls that goes to the games and doesn't pay attention.  She was watching the whole game and had completely forgotten the video board even existed.  So I think that should indicate how well the new patio fits in with the rest of the ballpark.  Traditionalists can rest easy as it seems the old girl can still make whore's glitter look classy.

By the 8th inning, I was counting outs like it was a playoff game just because I was ready to leave the cold.  Unfortunately the Cubs wanted to extend the day a little more.  Jeff Baker treated an easily fieldable ball like it was radioactive, and Sveum went to the bullpen.

I can't say I disagreed with the move. Dempster was at 108 pitches and we all remember how well he would do last year when he would convince Quade to leave him in for one more batter. So Dempster got a nice standing ovation and Kerry Wood came in to get the last out of the 8th.  This prompted Kris to ask how much of the standing ovation was for Dempster and how much was because Wood was coming in the game.  I think most of it was for Dempster, but with Cubs fans, you never know for sure.

Wood proceeded to load the bases with two walks, but the crowd was still with him.  He got Jayson Werth down 0-2 and the crowd was standing and chanting "Ker-ry, Ker-ry, Ker-ry!" It would have been a great moment, but Wood instead walked in the tying run. He finally retired the mighty DeRosa, but at that point, the crowd had been pretty well deflated. It's pretty depressing to see Kerry Wood being so damn ordinary.  The crowd seemed to agree as a good portion started filing out.

The 8th didn't go well for the Cubs and then Marmol came in and surprsingly didn't walk anyone, but also didn't strike anyone out. He gave up two 2-out hits and suddenly the Cubs were losing. The crowd continued their mass exodus.

Kris and I watched Reed Johnson go down swinging on three strikes to Brad Lidge and decided to head for the exits ourselves. Stewart hit his shot off the wall just as we were reaching the rampand we decided we would still go downstairs, but we'd hang around to see what happened.  If they tied it, we'd have a decision to make about hanging out in the cold for extra innings.

It turns out we needn't have worried as Joe Mather was gunned down easily at the plate on a grounder to third from Jeff Baker on the very next pitch.  As we reached the bottom of the ramp, we entered the realm of angry Cubs fans.  Nobody could understand why Mather had been running on contact.  These people are going to have coronaries before the end of the season if they react like this every time the Cubs do something stupid on the bases.  I just laughed. I couldn't help it.  It was all just so Cub.

We continued down and watched Byrd take a called third strike that I called a strike before the umpire had a chance to and we quickly exited the park.

The fans that were leaving were cold, and they seemed to have the wind knocked out of them.  It's hard to take a loss like that when you have actual expectations.  That's the peril of having hope on Opening Day, but it happens every year.  We never learn.

Maybe next year.

Tom Ricketts’ Easiest Interview Ever

I don’t read a ton of articles by Toni Ginnetti, so I can’t say whether she was just having a bad day or if this is the result of Tom Ricketts being particularly oily, but I had a hard time reading her interview with Tom today.

Tom Ricketts smiles at the question: Would winning the World Series help the Cubs accelerate their dream of transforming Wrigley Field into a modern stadium that retains its old-world charm?

There are two realistic answers to this question: 1) “Well, winning the World Series would be great for revenue generation since interest and demand for the team would be at an all-time high, and would probably accelerate timetables of our long-term plans.” 2) “Wrigley Field will never be a modern stadium, have you ever been there?”

I wonder which answer Tom will choose?

‘‘I’m convinced everything takes time,’’ the chairman said.

Wait… what?  A reporter lofted you a softball question that allows you to entertain the notion that a World Series for the Cubs is somehow plausible and your answer is basically, “Don’t hold your breath”?  Man, I bet Toni is really going to nail him with a stinging follow-up after that mis-step.

After all, it took his family three years to complete the record $845  million purchase of the Cubs from Tribune  Co. in October 2009, with the deal closing as the economy plunged.

Toni must have gone to the Yellon School of Journalism with a major in Follow-ups and minor in Wrong Facts.  Somehow, the time from when Zell bought the Tribune and announced the team would be sold on April 2, 2007 to October 2009 counts as three years. But even letting that slide on the basis that she was simply rounding up, the follow-up is a semi-rationalization of the bullshit answer you were just fed to a fairly simple question?

Amenities such as an electronic video board are things to consider down the road.

Well, I guess we really are just moving on to other things.

‘‘It’s not part of what we’re thinking about now,’’ Ricketts said. ‘‘There’s no space for it. Over time, who knows?’’

We’re not thinking about it, but we are because we know there’s no room for it, which somehow could change down the road, but who knows how or why because we’re not thinking about it.

But a year and a half into their ownership, the Rickettses have anchored their principles, from making the team less dependent on free agency, to player development, to beginning the long-term task of creating a Wrigley Field for the ­future.

Again, no follow-up to the bizarre response to the oddly out-of-place video board question.  Al would have at least asked Ricketts who owns the Cubs three times by now. Instead, Toni seems content to lead Tom into his own factually baseless rhetoric.

‘‘We’ve always talked about three goals: win a championship, preserve Wrigley Field and be a great neighbor,’’ Ricketts said.

They’ll win that championship when they get around to it, but first they need to get some tax money to preserve Wrigley and build up its revenue creating capabilities that will steal business away from their new bestest friends in the neighborhood.

Even if it’s unclear how the Cubs will pay for the longer-term changes, which could hinge on some kind of public financing help, the progress is measurable as the Rickettses begin their second season:

Did I miss something and Toni is now writing for Vine Line?

◆ A modernized spring-training facility in Mesa, Ariz., was secured in November when voters approved funding help for the project. The new facility is targeted for completion by 2014, perhaps sooner.

‘‘Other teams had newer and better facilities [built with help from Arizona specialty taxes denied to the Cubs], and it was definitely a front-burner concern to close that discrepancy,’’ Ricketts said.

The Cubs also have begun renovation on their training facility in the Dominican Republic, where future Latin American players will begin their careers.

‘‘That’s organizational consistency for our facilities,’’ Ricketts said.

I like the parenthetical statement unnecessarily added in there that highlights how unfair it is that Arizona had previously not provided tax dollars to the Cubs.  Seriously, when did Toni Ginnetti start working for the Cubs?  And does the Sun-Times know about it?

◆ Revitalizing Wrigley Field continues. Improvements to the locker-room facilities, which began last season, have continued with an expansion of the training room. It now includes X-ray equipment to help quickly diagnose some injuries.

Fans this year will see remodeled Sheffield Grill and Captain Morgan Club eateries, while the Batter’s Eye area in center field will have windows instead of fixed glass ‘‘so people can feel the game,’’ Ricketts said. New menus will feature items from local vendors, such as Vienna hot dogs and D’Agostino’s pizza, and gluten-free choices, among other special-diet fare.

She forgot to mention the troughs.  Maybe she doesn’t work for the Cubs afterall.  Maybe she could find out why the Cubs are remodeling areas of the ballpark that have all been put in or remodeled in the last five years?  What’s next?  An overhaul of the PNC Club?

In the background is the continuing replacement of aging brick and mortar.

OK, then, we’ll just move on.  Toni’s got shit to do, apparently.

‘‘Steel and concrete are ongoing things,’’ Ricketts said.

Kind of like the drought of championships, eh, Tom?

◆ The Cubs have aspired to be more cordial to surrounding businesses, rooftop owners and residents.

‘‘There were a lot of years when there wasn’t great communication with the team,’’ Ricketts said. ‘‘We’ve reached out to everyone.’’

The Cubs invested in one of the rooftop clubs last season when it was in danger of financial failure.

‘‘We have a small investment in it, and it gives us an insight into their business,’’ Ricketts said. ‘‘The rooftops are our partners, and we like them.’’

The Cubs share 17 percent of all the rooftop revenues under a deal struck in 2004 that ended a feud with then-owner Tribune Co.

So the Cubs aren’t being total dicks to the neighboring rooftops now that they have a piece of that revenue?  That’s very benevolent of them.  What great people the Rickettseses are.  I don’t even care if the Cubs ever win a damn thing again since I know such wonderful people with good Christian values are raking in all that cash from us fans.

The Cubs also have requested the 2014 All Star Game to coincide with the park’s 100th anniversary.

And a pony.

‘‘It would mean $150 million in revenue [for the city],’’ Ricketts said. ‘‘The commissioner [Bud Selig] is open-minded about it — if we can get some of the [ballpark] improvements done.’’

You hear that, Rahm?  The city ain’t getting jack squat unless Tom can find the money to add his Cubs Alley and other bullshit to the ballpark, and it better happen tootsweet because the clock is ticking.

Still on the drawing board is the long-discussed ‘‘triangle building’’ next to Wrigley that would include offices, restaurants and other amenities. But its future depends on uncertain financing.

‘‘It’s part of and can’t be separated from what we have to do to preserve the ballpark,’’ Ricketts said.

But what about all those restaurants and businesses that the Triangle Building would compete with for Cubs fan dollars?  They’re your friends now right?  Why would you try and hurt them like that? Never mind.  That’s not important to ask.

Implicit in his comments is the dilemma of seeking public revenue in a climate of strained government funds. The idea drew a chilly reception last fall when it was first raised, and Ricketts defers discussing it for now. Yet it could be the most challenging question facing the ownership family, even as it keeps checking off its to-do list.

Their checklist, as Tom mentioned and Toni accepted without question was:

  1. Win a championship – So far they’ve taken an 83 win team, turned it into a 75 win team and has now built a team that projections estimate to win somewhere between 73 and 76 wins.  I think we can say this is not even close to being checked off.
  2. Preserve Wrigley Field – They are at least openly trying to achieve this goal, though we’re not quite sure why since it will take around half a billion dollars to achieve on top of the $845 million they already paid.  But whatever, its not checked off.
  3. Be a great neighbor – They’re trying to consolidate the revenue driven in the neighborhood to their own property, but they’re being nice about it. I’ll give them half a check.

So the Cubs have achieved less than one of their three stated goals, one of which seems to contradict another.  Any thing else to ask, Toni?  No?  We’re just going to leave it at that?

I guess we’re just going to leave it at that.

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