After watching this crap ball club the last two nights...I think the focus needs to shoot directly to the top,....Ownership. The Ricketts were in the process of buying the club for a year and are in year 2 of actual ownership and what have they done exactly?

Random thoughts..

- Seem more concerned about Wrigley Field than the team. They have failed with both thus far. I could do without Wrigley Field....and I am a season ticket holder (for now).
- Kept Hendry, kept Crane Kenney...No accountability.....What a joke!
- Raised ticket prices! ha fucking ha. Raised ticket prices for this shit!
- Say they want to do things right....young ball players...develop farm system.....so they trade several top prospects for a pitcher....that is questionable but flies in the face of what they said....and then bring in Carlos Pena and let a young hitter (colvin) rot on the bench. Pick a lane you assholes
- Looked like boobs...saggy boobs when trying to get the state & entertainment tax to help renovate the dump
- Kept the 7th inning stretch
- Keep the same CUBA looking road uniforms.
- I have "missed" 4 games that I had tickets for and been to only one. I will miss more as I have no desire to watch a sinking ship with owners I feel are asleep at the wheel. Do something...fire Hendry! That would show some level of caring about the actual team. Full stop that you fucking dickwad Ricketts

I dont know...I'm just pissed, depressed, and really, really, really tired of watching a team do the same thing for the last several years and really feel like they have no direction or plan....and to believe that the owners are more worried about building a wrigley experience than they are about building a winning ball cluib really just chaps my ass.

Fire Hendry now and show the fans you care.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

Very well said. It's really spooky how much Ricketts looks & acts & sounds like McCaskey. Even the Wrigley rejuvination sounds like McCaskey asking Daley about a new Soldier Field. Same result from the state politicos.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Ricketts is a fraud. All he cares about are the dollars. And he is a stupid fuck too because revenues equates to winning basebal. And you are right on all counts. Ownership has done nothing substantive right and they are headed to the toilet fast. It's not even Memorial Day yet and they are stinking up the joint worse than Rosie O'donnell's Caller Bob.

that is an insult to that fat Caller Bob

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Frank Coztansa wrote:
Please die in a fire.

Cuba road uniforms ? Lost me there.

Maybe go back to the light blue pinstripes of the 1970s road gear with the white piping on the legs.

When the guy couldn't park cars in a straight line or sell hot dogs at a ball game, I knew it was trouble.

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Spot on, Walkman.

All Ricketts had to do to buy himself some time and fan goodwill was to fire Hendry. BigFan has said that Hendry kissed their ass up and down to keep his job. Unless the Cubs go on some sort of miraculous streak, Ricketts will be forced to fire Hendry or really get pounded.

It would be nice to see some of the print media start calling for Hendry's head.

The cubs have been bad before but this time I feel like the fans are truly infuriated and disgusted with everything there starting from the top. The attendance will be awful....and that will hopefully expedite the process.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Fair thoughts. Ricketts didn't create the payroll mess, but he certainly hasn't helped it. I think he is stuck trying to balance letting his GM handle the personnel vs. getting too involved. The Pena move and raising ticket prices are certainly the most questionable to me. The fact that this team plays really poor baseball is not his fault. Guys like Soriano were already here when he took over the team. The team has been bad fundamentally for a very long time and probably says something about their scouting and development more than anything else.

I am a very sad fan right now. I've been to 4 games and have a few more planned. I love going to Wrigley and watching baseball. I'll still pay attention, but I'll be turning down lots of free tickets this year.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Wonder if Big Fan has heard this one....allegedly this parking lot west of The Shrine that Ricketts wants to build is going to be "Condo Parking". You can buy or lease your parking space?
Ricketts will buy Lincoln Towing next.

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There goes one over the fence..Tru Link Fence..Beauty, Privacy Security....Call Tru Link.
Murph's Union 76 Truck Stop....A great Thanksgiving Tradition!!!!

WOO LIFE!!!!

Good analysis. It's rare to see coherent thoughts in this section while wading through the "FIRE EVERYONE!!" "EAT ALL THE BAD CONTRACTS" talk.

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Trust me when I tell you, there isn't a single owner who enjoys running an unprofitable team. They are all trying to make money.

The Ricketts inherited a terrible team. Give them some time to turn it around.

Yes heard it

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Well prior to this post I have got 3 emails from various people, 2 from this message board about the entire atmosphere around Wrigley. This is not about race, but the begging, scalping, and general psychos congregating in front of Wrigley is an all time high.

The beggars are even assholes. As they aggressively ask people for money, running to get in front of people and then when people don't give them anything, they say "Thanks alot!" or something worse. Seen this happen now on a few occasions recently.

I do think there was some racial issues that actually led to this? Something happened about not letting ANYONE sell tickets in front of Wrigley. While I think the rule/law still exists, the Cubs started allowing it last year. I asked why and was told, due to some legal issues with the color of the scalpers, as most of the street scalpers were young black men running up and down the streets. (Who for the record, I actually knew a few of them and were decent guys making a buck. who I gave my number to and would tell them when I had extras)

Gonna PM TIME TRAVELING BUNNY, who did not send me an email, but I think works/worked Cubs security and might know about it.

Basically, this new relaxed law/policy is what allows anyone and everyone to do whatever they want and bottom line it has got bad.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Weird, I haven't had this problem. There are some folks asking for tickets, but nothing more than usual. And when I mind my own business or shake my head "no", they leave me alone. I actually found the folks around the UC were worse during the Blackhawks games. I would go to Billy Goat or West End, and that walk back to the UC was pretty awful.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

I agree. I was just down there on Friday and saw maybe 5 black people total. Felt like a normal day at Wrigley to me. The agressiveness of scalpers and bums is 100 times worse around the UC. I'm going to guess these anonymous PM's to Bigfan came from John Kirk and Elmhurst Steve.

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The one game I went to was a night game and T-shirt weather...so pretty nice. I saw a few scalpers offering to buy tickets for $10 so they could sell them $20. There is little to market for the tickets, especially given team performance and the weather sucking ass!

My only other comment is that the "vibe" around the stadium was really down. Maybe that is because the Bulls were playing that night and clinching the series against Atlanta.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

Ricketts will respond to the boos and empty seats which will become the norm. Hendry/Quade will both be axed after the season. It should be now, but it won't. At minimum, they should axe a coach now, but they won't.

My favorite is the scalpers asking for $20/ticket and me telling them $5. I sometimes get a no. Others I get a "get the F outta here. I'd rather eat the ticket than give it to you for $5." Then that usually happens as I'm walking in the park for $5.

But BF is right. The scalpers situation is more chaotic than it used to be.

As for this team, it's the worst fielding team I've seen in my time as a Cubs fan. Some of it falls on the players. Some of it falls on Quade. But Mr. I'm in the Production Business assembled this outfit. Production of what? Leading the league in errors.

Firing a coach now is an admission that there's a problem. If they truly feel there's a problem, fire everyone now or just wait until season's end.

OK Ricketts is MAYBE doing a few things right. He did inherit...no he BOUGHT a boat load of crap...contracts, coaches, players. GM's, & presidents, and Wrigley Field. So he bought it...now he has to have a plan to get the hell out of it. He tries to say the right things...but his actions tell me that he really has no direction. Go younger...then trade your top prospects. I'm HOPING he keeps Hendry around because he doesnt want to pay 2 people for 1 job. Maybe the same for Crane Kenny...but didn't he get a new contract or extended under Ricketts watch? Not sure on that.

So if he is truly just riding out the time on the shit he bought....then I guess we will still have to take a "wait & see"....but this year and the off season should be very telling. To me, he appears to have hitched his wagon to Hendry & Kenny and that sucks.

All this goes to show you the genius that is John McDonough. He put lipstick on this pig for years....then spent like a drunken sailor, mortgaged the future, and tried to buy a WS before getting out of dodge right as the shit start flying into tha fan.

Cubs team is in trouble, but the (dis) organization seems to be in trouble too.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

Yeah, not sure what he meant by that one. They haven't had the "Cuba" uni's since before Harry died.

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yeah my bad. I was "spewing". Guess I'm just not a fan of the blue top - road uni's I guess. Whether is "cuba" or the walking cub.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

I for one completely blame the Ricketts for these. Especially the burrito sister.

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You blame them for the death of Kevin Foster? I'm not a Ricketts guy, but that might be a bit of a stretch.

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They were also behind the death of Jeremi Gonzalez......it all makes sense once you read between the lines.

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I didn't even know he died...

The Cubs could have quite a staff right now. I blame Hendry.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geremi_Gonz%C3%A1lez

DeathGonzález died after being struck by lightning in Punta Palma, Zulia on May 25, 2008.

Or was it something else.....

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This years draft is really going to show a lot about the direction the Cubs are heading and I'm surprised no one is talking about it. Last year they went cheap and drafted Hayden Simpson in the first round when Baseball America didn't even have him ranked in their top 200 players and then they signed him to an under-slot contract.

This year the Cubs have the 9th pick in a talent heavy draft with players asking for exorbitant signing bonuses because baseball will likely collective bargain a hard slotting system for future drafts. If the Cubs pony up and pay for a tremendous talent signing bonus be damned it will show they are serious about competing in the future but if they pull off another Simpson-like pick and take a lesser talent for less money it will show just how much the organization is hurting financially and winning may not be the highest priority.