Dollars and sense is a column about Chicago sports media and business
The leak didn’t exactly build excitement for the Cubs’ new “City Connect” jersey.
A photo of the “Wrigleyville” jersey was tweeted out four days before its release by Dave Williams, a Barstool Sports Chicago personality, and floating on a hanger in a warehouse, it looked like a bland bootleg jersey a drunk tourist would buy off a stand outside of Sports Corner.
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But as it turns out, the jersey looks better when Javy Báez and Anthony Rizzo are wearing it. I got a sneak peek of the uniform Monday morning, as the Cubs warmed up some reporters before Tuesday’s release.
“It’s not ideal,” Cubs vice-president of marketing Lauren Fritts said of the leak. “But I think once people see the full story, certainly our fans in Chicago are going to really rally around this.”
While the White Sox’s flashy new Nike uniforms impressed everyone except the grammarians (seriously, it should be South Side, not Southside), the Cubs’ edition is a bit more understated by comparison. OK, people called it boring when it was leaked.
But the entire package looks nice enough and it comes with a healthy amount of deep thought behind it. Seriously.
“Because the platform is called City Connect we really wanted to turn that around,” Fritts said. “How can we connect the city? Again, tying back to our value of being a good neighbor, we really felt like how we could build a platform with Nike that would allow us to unite all 77 neighborhoods. We know for us, with the Cubs, it’s unique to be a ballclub that plays in the heart of a neighborhood and that was what we really wanted to play up and the design ethos we wanted to do with Nike.”
While you saw the Wrigleyville front, with the text shaped like the marquee, there are some cooler uniform details, including the Chicago municipal logo on the sleeve. (There’s a relatively cool T-shirt adorned with the symbol as well.)
On the bottom of the jersey is the phrase “respect our neighborhood,” which adorns signs at Wrigley Field, you know, because drunk scofflaws always read those. I like the light blue accents, including the belt.
The New Era hat is a winner, featuring a white C with a light blue outline with a Chicago star from the flag in the middle. I know what you might be thinking, “Again with the Chicago flag?” Yes, it’s a design element that’s been used to death, but it’s a nice touch to make the hat a little unique.
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Nike will unveil City Connect uniforms for the entire league over three seasons. Fritts wasn’t sure if the Cubs would wear the exact same uniform every season, but they will mix this one into the rotation over that span.
But back to the story. What are the Cubs trying to sell, er, tell here?
Well, the theme of the season is “Cub Together,” an easily mockable slogan that has a good heart. And the Cubs are tying in this uniform to that heartening message, which is, essentially, “Aren’t people great?”
The Cubs are showcasing nine local groups on Fridays this season as part of this campaign, including the Young Chicago Authors, the Inner-City Muslim Action Network and Healthy Hot Free Meals.
The highlight of the Cubs’ presentation for this promotion was a video set to a poem read by E’mon Lauren Black, the first youth poet laureate of Chicago, and Chicago rapper Matt Muse. I know it’s marketing, but I’ll support good poetry in any medium.
This week, the Cubs will dispatch brand ambassadors to all 77 neighborhoods looking for Cubs fans to bestow free tickets to the June 12 game where the Cubs will introduce these uniforms. The winners will get their own jersey with their neighborhood’s name on the back and will represent their turf during a pregame ceremony.
I, for one, want to go with them on their journey to Bridgeport bars like Turtle’s or Shinnick’s Pub. “Hey guys, you like the Cubs?”
As for the reason the Cubs went with Wrigleyville instead of Lakeview or the North Side for this neighborhood-inspired jersey — a complaint I saw on Twitter — that should be obvious. But I asked Fritts about it to satiate the critics.
“We really wanted to put Wrigleyville on the jersey mainly because we’re celebrating the fact that Wrigleyville is the place that brings people from all 77 neighborhoods together,” she said.
I think people from neighborhoods like Back of the Yards and Hegewisch might quibble with the idea of Wrigleyville uniting the city, but I let it go.
When I talked to White Sox marketing guru Brooks Boyer about the Sox’s uniform, he explained how they pitched the “Southside” idea to Nike, instead of the other way around. Fritts said they played around with other ideas with the Nike designers, including a Catalina Island vibe. The Cubs used to train on the California island in the 1950s. I have to admit, I would love to see the Cubs dressed in a “sailing theme,” if only for the jokes. But the Cubs stuck to their message.
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“Everything came back to the idea of neighborhoods and how we unite 77 neighborhoods,” Fritts said. “The design process was mostly finished before the pandemic, but coming out of the pandemic and going to full capacity Friday, it’s a really good way to bring a message of unity that I think everyone’s looking for.”
On Monday, we published my story about how MLB broadcasters are unhappy with the current state of affairs that has them calling road games from home booths and soulless studios. I left a lot out and I’m not just talking about all of the off-the-record complaints. Here are some deleted quotes from the story:
Adam Amin is doing national baseball games both on-site and remote this season for Fox. He just finished a full season calling games at an empty United Center while doing road games in a studio. What’s the difference between calling each sport off monitors?
“Basketball is admittedly easier,” he said. “Because of the personnel, there’s 10 players and there’s a higher percentage chance that you will get more of those players in one camera shot. And the court is set, you know it’s contained. The game camera can follow all the action. So for the most part, you have more safety belts. Baseball is way harder, especially on plays of action.”
Both Reds broadcaster John Sadak and Dodgers play-by-play voice Joe Davis taught me something I didn’t know. They cheat a little when they call home runs.
“We learn as announcers when you’re first calling baseball, you don’t really read the swing,” Sadak said. “Sometimes you just know, but what you’re reading is the outfielders. They will tell you what’s happening. If they don’t move at all, the dude killed it and you can build to a big call. If they start moving super-fast, there’s a chance for a play at the wall, and you know how to build emotionally to that point.”
“As a play-by-play person, you’re trained to, on fly balls, use the outfielders to take you to the ball,” Davis said. “I didn’t realize until last year that I used, as kind of an input to tell me how well a ball was hit, fans in the bleachers and the pavilion reaching for the ball. You kind of got a landing spot for where the home run was headed. I didn’t realize that was like something that I drew information from.”
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One thing I think you learn from the story is how much effort the broadcasters are putting into calling games remotely and how much they miss talking to players and coaches in person. Most of them go into baseball broadcasting because they’re storytellers and they love the grind of a season. Now, it’s a different kind of grind.
“I mean, it’s a pretty substantial effort to get to decent every night,” White Sox broadcaster Jason Benetti said. “And we hate decent.”
There’s no reason that Benetti and Steve Stone should still be doing road games from a studio in NBC Tower while the Sox’s radio team of Len Kasper and Darrin Jackson have been traveling with the team for weeks. NBC Sports Chicago should be leading the way in getting their guys back on the road. Jerry Reinsdorf owns a big chunk of the station. What’s his thinking?
As for the Cubs, they’re going to need MLB to loosen rules to get their broadcasters on the team plane. They’re currently hindered by the team’s well-publicized inability to get to the 85-percent vaccination mark. What’s the solution? Well, I know of at least one Cubs minority owner who has a private plane. Maybe he could rechristen it “Air Boog One” for the season?
(Photo: Steve Green / Chicago Cubs)
