Tom Ricketts to Address Chicago Cubs: Chicago Should Be Ready for Same Old Story

According to ESPNChicago.com, Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts will publicly address the current state of the organization within the next ten days.  What does that mean for Cubs fans? 

Brace yourselves. 

The timing for this speaking engagement is curious, and disturbing.  The Cubs are playing their best baseball of the season, having won 12 of their last 15 games.  In the middle of the team’s first hot streak, is Ricketts really going to get up and tell everyone that he is disappointed in the club, and that big things need to change? 

I don’t think he will, even though he desperately needs too.  Ricketts has shown that he knows very little about the game of baseball, or how to run a franchise.  Instead of accepting the fact that the organization he purchased is in dire need of an overhaul, he instead has chosen to listen to the eternal optimism of people who will do anything to keep their jobs. 

Get ready Cubs fans, Ricketts is going to tell you that everything is fine, Jim Hendry is the man he wants running the show, and Mike Quade really has the team playing well right now.  He’s gone around the minor league system, and he can assure you that help is on the way! 

Please, someone pop my ear drums. 

We all know the truth, the truth that Ricketts and the Cubs are trying to deny.  The team is bad, and so is the minor league system.  Hendry has made good moves in the past, but recently has handcuffed the squad with bad contracts and bad players, and the manager he chose might actually know less about baseball than he does. 

All Cubs fans can hope for is that Ricketts has noticed the empty seats.  Tom’s father Joe has no doubt reminded his son of what he was told before purchasing the organization.  Tom famously told his father that, 

“They sell every ticket to every game, win or lose.” 

That era in Chicago is over.  Cubs fans have put up with bad management and losing for far too long.  They’re sick of it, and they're showing it in their attendance. 

If Ricketts wants to see Cubs fans back at Wrigley Field, he needs to put a winning product on the field.  That isn’t going to happen with the people he has managing his club.  But does Ricketts know that? 

I hope so, but we will likely find out whether or not he does within the next ten days.  Though I am trying to be optimistic about the situation, I feel that it is my duty to tell Cubs fans once again: 

Brace yourselves.