Your vision to transform the Cubs into a modern organization in a baseball and business sense has saved baseball in Chicago.

I speak for all Chicago baseball fans when I say thank you Mr. Ricketts.

Here's a great opportunity for all the Guardians of the Board to point out and denigrate a trolling post. That won't happen. At Chicago Cubs Fan Message Board such repudiation is reserved for good dolphin.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Definitely saved baseball for the Sox fans. They admittedly quit baseball if their team doesn't win.

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how will the cubs success prevent the Sox from moving to Montreal?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

2005 saved baseball.

You enjoyed the past 2-3 years of baseball in Chicago?

Rising tides lift all boats. With the Cubs success I would bet the Sox won't be as complacent.

It's easy to go through the motions when your competition sucks eggs as well.

Look at JORR defending her honor.....awwwwwww..................

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I agree, this thread was completely unnecessary. Baseball wasn't dead in Chicago. There is always going to be more interest when the team(s) are good. Dead was what was happening at the UC (hockey game nights) for the better part of a decade.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Well said.

Sox fans don't even believe that.

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Baseball in Chicago wasn't in any danger of extinction, so no, it was not saved. The Ricketts family hired a very good President of baseball operations in Theo, who hired a very good GM in Hoyer and very good scouting director as well as very good scouts. they formulated a long-term fix, to bring the team along in such a way that it could have a long-term, sustainable period of excellence. However, that plan included a necessary period of losing.....of bad Baseball. The team has come together a bit more quickly (by a year) than many anticipated. The hiring of Joe Maddon has a lot to do with that. But nobody saved Baseball this year, the plan just came of age and we are seeing it all come together this year. It will only get better in the coming seasons barring injuries to key players.

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Go Cubs!!!!

SOX SUBDIVISION LEAVING CHICAGO

Jerry Reinsdorf saved Chicago sports.

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Kenny Williams fell for the banana in the tailpipe

The entire Cubs organization deserves a lot of credit right now. And the intelligent Cubs fans that supported a complete rebuild of the organization without overreacting deserve some recognition. We now have what will be known as a premier baseball organization for the next decade or more.

#core25

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Yes. I enjoy every year of baseball in Chicago. In the worst possible year the Sox will win 60 games and the Cubs will lose 60. That's a minimum of 120 moments of joy each summer.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Many have revisionist history. TV ratings, attendance and interest plummeted the past two years. Shoot, go or watch a game being played on the the South Side. Cemetaries have a better atmoosphere. Wrigley would've been the same if it wasn't for tourists and bros filling up seats.

If you think it's intelligent to watch your team suck on purpose for 3 long years then those intelligent Cub fans must suffer from selective Alzheimer's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

Exactly, Not liking the clubs approach to tanking for 3-4 years doesn't mean they don't understand what they are doing.

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How are you enjoying this year jimmy? Cubs' 2015 playoff chances could be quite different without Arrieta, Bryant, Schwarber, Russell, etc, wouldn't you say?

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

I think these guys would be so much happier if the Cubs had spent boatloads of money to finish .500 for those three years. Then this year would mean so much more to them. Funny thing is, if they had lots of big money guys on the roster, they probably would have blocked guys like Schwarber and Russell from coming up.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

jedstein was left with a real shitfest. luckily the prior management had at least a decent minor league system already in place. they should've just called it a three year plan and nobody would've noticed.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

The Cubs wouldn't have Russell or Schwarber.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Schwarber, by all accounts, would have been available later in the draft.

Arrietta could have been had for any number of players despite the tanking. The Orioles were giving up on him.

They acquired Russell not because they tanked, but because Shark would not sign with them. Would Shark have signed with them, which was the Cubs first option, they would not have Russell.

Bryant would not have been here, that is true.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Fact is they took Schwarber #4. Someone could have taken him #5, #6, #7... Cubs aren't necessarily the only team that recognized his talent. Though...maybe Theo and Jed are just that much better than everyone else.

If the Cubs were .500, it is possible they'd be in wild card hunts and not in a position to trade contributing starting pitchers like Feldman. Maybe they don't even sign Feldman in the first place and instead spent bad money elsewhere on an Edwin Jackson type.

Again, if the Cubs were competing they don't trade Samardzija, even if he didn't sign the offer in 2014. Competing teams overpay for mid-season help, and the Cubs capitalized on the fact that they weren't competing in 2014 to get top value for Samarzija.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

I cut jimmy slack. Alot of us who bought into the plan are young so we can afford to be patient. If I was old and going to die soon like jimmy I would probably share his views.

The business end of upgrades has been ham handedly operated from the beginning and still is to this day (beginning with Rahm shutting them down for public money and most recently them not thinking that Chicago is cold in the winter). This may work out. It will be over budget. It will have taken far longer than they proposed. The business management team would not have survived to see the conclusion of the project had the true owner of the team been running it rather than using it as a sandbox for his motley crew of children.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

You weren't talking fact. You were talking speculation. He was universally speculated to go lower, even by the Cubs who called him a below slot pick. Maybe he would have been taken 5. The more likely scenario is that he would not.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

The Cubs wanted to sign Samardzija, tanking or not. They had a sizable offer, verified by both parties. That offer was made in the midst of the tanking and was reissued during the days leading up to the trade.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Been there,done that. People die at all ages. Nobody has time for a 3 year plan that MIGHT bear fruit.

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