Dollars and sense is a column about Chicago sports media and business
Well, I guess I’m back to patrolling the Cubs’ dumpsters.
Because when the Cubs are bad, you might not know what’s going to happen next, but you can assume something in the garbage will go viral on social media.
On Monday afternoon, the Cubs announced they were throwing a party Thursday to honor themselves. It’s an off day for the team, thankfully, so the Cubs front office and ownership are throwing a “rededication event” to signal the end of the 1060 Project, the expensive remodeling and rebuild of Wrigley Field and the adjoining campus. The event includes the premiere of an hour-long “documentary” about the renovations titled, humbly, “Saving Wrigley Field.” (You’ll be able to check that out on YouTube, Marquee Sports Network and wherever good propaganda is sold.)
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It’s going to be a big party. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is showing up, along with state and local officials and the Ricketts family. Maybe Clark the Cub will put on some pants.
Perhaps this isn’t the best time to celebrate. The Cubs, as you might’ve heard, are back to being awful. They have lost 11 games in a row for the second time in the past two months. (The streak was extended to 12 on Monday night. The team’s modern-day record is 14.) They traded away almost all of their star players in a two-day span at the trade deadline. They have a lineup full of Triple-A guys. They might lose 100 games this season despite being in first place in the division as late as June. Ticket prices are so high, you should get a plate appearance with your purchase.
But the party will go on.
Sadly, I regret to inform you there won’t be any expensive cake this time. I got that confirmed. Which means no dumpster cake.
I take some credit, or I guess blame, for the viral sensation of the “Cubs dumpster” from the middle days of the rebuild. At the end of the 2013 season, a group of reporters was waiting outside Wrigley Field on Waveland Avenue when I noticed fans walking away from a dumpster across the street with huge Cubs banners. I invited the Tribune’s Paul Sullivan, no stranger to Cubs garbage, to take a look with me. That’s when we found those oversized condolence cards to Ron Santo.
If you signed a card for the late Ron Santo, it's in the dumpster too. pic.twitter.com/FSOwq4YE0F
— jon greenberg (@jon_greenberg) September 30, 2013
In 2014, as the Cubs were celebrating the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field, the Field Museum’s disposal of a decadent Cubs cake became a big thing. And of course, everyone remembers the disastrous rollout of Clark the Cub.
You would think the Cubs had learned that when you’re bad, there’s no time to celebrate yourself. But apparently, they haven’t.
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The reaction from Cubs fans when I tweeted out portions of the Cubs’ press release was about what you’d expect, particularly the part about the unveiling of “a plaque to commemorate Wrigley Field’s official designation as a National Historic Landmark and a plaque to commemorate the Ricketts family’s commitment to preserving Wrigley Field.”
The rededication event will also include the presentation of two plaques: “a plaque to commemorate Wrigley Field’s official designation as a National Historic Landmark and a plaque to commemorate the Ricketts family’s commitment to preserving Wrigley Field.”
— jon greenberg (@jon_greenberg) August 16, 2021
Of course, the renovations were primarily to make the team more money, not to “save” or “preserve” Wrigley Field. But that’s not to say many of those renovations weren’t necessary.
While I enjoyed the quiet between innings of the pre-2015 ballpark, it needed videoboards. And while I enjoyed parking in the old “purple lot” on Clark Street back in the day, the Gallagher Way park is a blessing for fans, particularly kids, during games. (At the time, the Cubs were angry that they couldn’t get city approval to host non-ticketed fans in the park during games, but it’s much better as a controlled environment.)
I can’t even get mad about the renderings for the Cubs’ new sportsbook, which I wrote about when it was first announced last fall. In what fantasy world would the Cubs not add a sportsbook to their property? It might be gauche — or just unnecessary since most people bet on their phones — but it’s the way of the present.
But that doesn’t mean fans have to celebrate any of it. The main purpose of the 1060 Project and the Marquee Sports Network was to provide the team with more revenue streams to benefit the baseball operations department. The team just traded Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Javy Báez, among others, all of whom are going to be free agents. This after trading Yu Darvish in a pure contract dump in the winter.
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A rededication party at this point of the season is an idea that simply defies common sense. They already pushed it back once. Wait till next year, as they say.
That being said, one part of the “rededication” party that should interest fans is the unveiling of a new Cubs Hall of Fame.
To find out more about it, I caught up with Cubs executive vice president of sales and marketing Colin Faulkner, who talked to me for a few minutes while catching up on my tweets poking fun at the team.
Faulkner told me the unveiling of the Hall was supposed to happen last year, along with the rededication ceremony, but it was delayed because of the pandemic.
A formal Cubs Hall of Fame is a past-due endeavor that is part of a streamlined process for how past Cubs greats are honored. Wrigley Field is not shy about nostalgia. There are statues of the greats outside the ballpark. There are flags on the roof and the retired numbers on the foul poles. A “walk of fame” was instituted in the 1990s. During the renovation, the Cubs added displays along the walls of the bleacher concourse.
But Faulkner said they got together with team historian Ed Hartig to come up with a tiered system to formalize the different recognitions, like what gets someone a flag or a retired number or free food at any of the stadium’s new private clubs. OK, I made that last one up, but the Hall of Fame represents one such recognition.
(The White Sox have a similar process. If Jerry Reinsdorf loves you, you get a statue.)
Faulkner said the new Hall of Fame has been installed already with plaques on the walls and while he wouldn’t release the names of the inductees, it’s basically everyone who has been honored by the team already, around 60 names from the past.
The fun part is, like other teams, the Cubs will induct new Hall of Famers every year or so, giving them an annual story to distract the fans when the team is going down the tubes. Will Anthony Rizzo be inducted while still playing? Can Theo Epstein find time in his busy schedule of saving baseball to attend his induction?
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I have more questions about the Hall of Fame that Faulkner didn’t have time to answer, like, who votes on induction? Will there be a media wing? Is Sammy Sosa part of the original group going in? Does Hartig have time for this extra work given his job researching the Cubs’ futility grows with every concurrent loss?
So many questions.
The White Sox’s win over the Yankees in the Field of Dreams game was MLB’s biggest marketing hit in recent memory. The TV product was enthralling and reports from the scene were equally glowing. Everyone had a blast, it seems. Cubs manager David Ross seemingly informed reporters the team would be invited next year. That makes sense from both a geographical and popularity sense. But I can’t imagine that’s a done deal thanks to the Cubs’ woeful on-field product. While Cubs president Jed Hoyer has been adamant this won’t be a prolonged rebuild, will next year’s team be entertaining enough to include in this game? Everyone saw the corn and the sunset, but it was Tim Anderson and Co. that provided the magic. (Sure enough, after the publication of this column, NBC Sports Chicago’s Gordon Wittenmyer reported the Cubs and Reds will play in next year’s game.) … WSCR baseball insider Bruce Levine pinch hit for Ron Coomer over the weekend doing two Cubs games with play-by-play man Zach Zaidman, who was pinch hitting for Pat Hughes, who was doing Cubs TV with Ryan Dempster in lieu of Marquee’s regular crew of Jon Sciambi and Jim Deshaies. With the Cubs on the road, the broadcasts were all remote and this time, no one was complaining about the lack of travel. The regular crews are going to need these days off to make it through the last two months. At the very least, they should stop taking their Prevagen so they forget this season ever happened.
(Photo: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)
