NewsCubs' new owners to keep staff intact
Chairman Ricketts: 'I think we have the right people'
By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com
10/30/09 6:55 PM EST
CHICAGO -- Tom Ricketts joked that his brother, Todd, was going to be the Cubs' new first-base coach. Todd, though, held up three fingers, saying he preferred third.Cubs coaches Matt Sinatro and Mike Quade can both relax. The Ricketts family does not plan on changing the coaching staff or manager or general manager now that they have formally taken over the team and Wrigley Field.
"You hire people you trust and give them the opportunity to make decisions and hold them accountable," Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said Friday. "I think we have the right people, we have the right manager. Let them do their job. If it doesn't happen, then we think about it next year."
The Ricketts family was formally introduced at Wrigley Field on Friday and expressed the same desire as every other Cubs fan: To win the World Series. That's the same message pitcher Ryan Dempster delivered at the start of Spring Training in 2008.
"I believe it," said Dempster, who attended the news conference. "That's what you have to do -- you have to believe that way, you have to think that way and get everybody thinking that way. We're not that far away. We had a tough year last year for a lot of different reasons.
"I'm sure there are guys sitting at home watching the World Series now, and if they're anything like me, it starts to tick you off a little bit and it gives you a lot of motivation," Dempster said.
Tom Ricketts will get his first in-depth look at the Cubs' baseball operations next week when he attends the organization meetings in Arizona. That will be his first chance at a face-to-face meeting with manager Lou Piniella.
"I haven't spent a lot of time with Lou personally," Ricketts said. "We strongly believe he's one of the best managers in baseball and he's the right guy to take us to the next level in 2010."
Ricketts projected a "slight" increase in team payroll for 2010 from the $135 million total in '09 and emphasized the need for player development within the organization.
"I'm looking forward to having a family run the club," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said. "I had a taste of a single owner with Wayne Huizenga [in Florida], and I remember all of us felt that was a great thing. Tom knows a lot about me already, and he'll know a lot more in the next couple years."
Hendry said the payroll has never been an excuse not to win. However, he would like to see the facilities upgraded, both at Wrigley Field and in Mesa, Ariz., where the team has its Spring Training headquarters. The Cubs players do not have access to a batting cage during games which other teams have, but use a net and a batting tee in the clubhouse. The clubhouse itself is cramped, and players have to use the weight room in shifts because it's so small.
"We don't use it as an excuse because, obviously, the visiting side is even tougher," Hendry said of the facilities.
"We're behind in the times here as far as training facilities and clubhouse facilities and even facilities on the concourse for the fans," Dempster said. "[Any updates] will just improve the atmosphere around here and will make coming to work even that much better."
His first priority?
"A trophy room, a World Series room," Dempster said. He was joking -- sort of.
It'll be up to a clever architect to figure out a way to expand the clubhouse without having Section 112 cave in. The proposed Triangle building, projected for Clark Street west of Wrigley Field, could house some of the amenities for the players, but the Ricketts family will take a year to study that option. Tom Ricketts said they have talked to the Boston Red Sox about how they handled renovations at Fenway Park and avoided having to move the team to another location.
Team president Crane Kenney said if the Ricketts family can settle on a design, the Cubs could begin building as soon as the 2010 season ends and hopefully be completed by 2012.
There are other things to look ahead to. Wrigley will celebrate its centennial in 2014, and Kenney said he hopes the ballpark will be the site of the All-Star Game that year.
Anything is possible. The emphasis at Friday's news conference was improving the experience for Cubs fans. The Ricketts were not shy about expressing their love of the team.
"I'm a Cubs fan," Dempster said. "I'm glad they are. I think it's important. The success of their entire family says so much about them that I think they'll bring those expectations and those possibilities over here."
Did the flux in team ownership this season create any problems?
"No," Dempster said. "We just didn't play very well."
The Cubs won the National League Central in 2007 and '08, and finished with a winning record but in second place in '09, battling injuries and disappointing seasons from key players like Alfonso Soriano, Geovany Soto and Milton Bradley. But Tom Ricketts said the Cubs aren't cursed.
"To me, there is no curse," Ricketts said. "If anybody on our team thinks he's cursed, we'll move him to a 'lesser-cursed' team."
Said Dempster: "It's a nice feeling that the people in charge feel that way."
Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
