A throwback - Trib buys the Chicago Cubs

So far they haven't posted this vid on YouTube yet, but I just want to share this. FuzzyMemories had video from 1981 discussing the sale of the Chicago Cube to the Tribune Company. Appropriate to look at this history as in 2008 the Cubs are on the auction block. Also we're looking at whether or not the Cubs might have to play at US Cellular Field whenever Wrigley Field is sold to the state and renovated. Oh and I should also add that the new Tribune owner, Sam Zell, is floating the idea of selling naming rights for Wrigely Field.

And after the Cubs story apparently the Chicago Public Schools had money problems and this wouldn't allow for the schools to open on time. Well don't ask me what happened with that history I have no idea. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

Beyond that story there's the US selling arms to China. President Reagan goes after the Democratic Congress for attempting to undercut his economic program. And they show video of his press conference where he discusses possibly running for re-election. They also mentioned the assasination attempt in addition to news about Reagan's press secretary James Brady who was shot in this episode. The Reagan White House said they wouldn't issue anymore bulletins about Brady. They also teased a story about John Cardinal Cody being in the hospital and flooding in Northwest Indiana and the south suburbs.

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One Version of the Budget Address

Rich is pointing out that there was not an off the record budget briefing from the governors office this year.

However here at OneMan central we have gotten a preview copy...

Dear Citizens of Illinois, in the past I have tried to do big things for you, health care, better school funding all without raising income taxes. I have failed you, due to the lack of vision of the people in front of me, they have didn't have the vision to approve the GRT, they didn't have the vision to lease the lottery or toll road. They didn't embrace Kino, they have asked questions about what I have wanted to do for you and all around meddled in my plans.

No more....

We are going to buy the Chicago Cubs and I will serve as GM along with being the coolest governor.

How we are going to pay for this. Simple, I am going to sweep every single fund down to 0 and we are not going to pay any bills for 6 months.

That's it, if you don't approve it I will have more special sessions than you can shake a bat at. I will veto anything and everything you do until this happens. I will end up seeing you in court. While you guys are dealing with all of that I will be enjoying the summer at Blago Field opps I mean Wrigley Field.

Go Cubs, I have to catch a Hannah Montana episode I think he secret identity is going to be revealed to the world.

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Taxpayer's Shouldn't be on the Hook for Wrigley Deal

Not long after Mayor Daley soundly rejected the publicly-financed purchase of Wrigley Field, someone over at Zell Corp. is floating a new trial balloon.

They are putting naming rights on the table, which the city could then turn around and sell and us the proceeds to pay off the bond. Presumably, the city will be left with a little extra annual cash windfall from the deal. Member initiative money for the members of the City Council to fulfill their annual wishlist.

If such a deal is struck, the city and its taxpayers should not be left on the hook for needed capital repairs of the stadium.

Read the Crain's Chicago Business story here. Nice work by Mike Colias and Ann Saphir.

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Peanuts, Popcorn, Cold Beer

In the

Are They Nuts?

category is state officials considering that state taxpayers might buy Wrigley Field.

That’s what immediately came to mind when I saw the teaser on the top left of the front page of Thursday’s Chicago Tribune.

Is this some trade-off in which the Tribune would agree to support Governor Rod Blagojevich for a third term, if he rushed to the rescue of the Tribune?

I heard on the radio, but didn’t listen to carefully, that for the deal to sell the Tribune to go through, the company has to get rid of the Cubs operation by the first of the year.

Some of you know that I’m not a sports fan.

I figure politics has pretty much the same elements as sports, but could cost me money. Only rarely does sports cost me money.

I can think of state government’s building the new White Sox stadium. I can think of McHenry County College’s trying to put us taxpayers at risk by building a minor league baseball stadium for investors unknown.

So, I didn’t toss the Sports section on the floor for re-cycling today. I’m actually reading a story in it. Maybe it belongs in the business section of the paper.

“It is unclear how the state and ISFA (Illinois Sports Facilities Authority) would raise funds for such a purchase, which would fetch hundreds of millions if sold,” Jim Kirk's article says.

But it’s not just state taxpayers who would be at risk, the Tribune Company is talking to Mayor Richard Daley, too.

I can hear another big Tax Increment Financing district rolling through city council on this one.

Take the money from Chicago schools. Only the Chicago Reader will figure it out and they are laying off a higher percentage of reporters than the Tribune now that personals can be found on the internet.

And why would the Tribune want to sell the ballpark to the state?

To shift renovation costs from the Cubs prospective buyer. That would increase the price paid for the team.

There’s certainly something shifty here.

In my grad school public finance class at the University of Michigan, it was discussed in the class on incidence. It was about who really pays the cost of something.

With “public-private partnerships” all the rage, why wouldn’t the Tribune think the taxpayers would bail it out?

After all, when the Cubs finally do get to a World Series, wouldn’t all the (well, maybe, not the Cardinal fans) legislators want tickets?

I remember when the White Sox were almost in the World Series in the 1990’s, I had the opportunity to buy tickets for the play offs at face value.

That inducement would probably be enough to get state legislators to vote for such a deal.

= = = = =
The picture of Wrigley Field came from a State of Illinois taxpayer financed web site. This story was first posted on McHenry County Blog.

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“It Was Wrigley, Not Some Goat, Who Cursed the Cubs”

That was the title of the last column that Mike Royko ever wrote. March 21^st, 1997.

His epitomical work seems like a good epitaph today.

Mike Royko had opinions – about a lot of things – and he was of the opinion that P.K. Wrigley, who owned The Cubs until 1977 when they were sold to the Tribune Company, was responsible for a 22 year skid that began in 1947.

Royko wrote:

…all that could have been overcome in 1947 – two years after the Cubs’ last World Series [appearance] and the end of the war.

That was when Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers knocked down the racial wall in baseball by signing ex-Army officer Jackie Robinson.

And later continues:

Had Wrigley followed Rickey’s lead, he could instantly have a competitive team. And depending on how many black players he could have tolerated, maybe a great team.

He didn’t. His players made their feelings clear, voting not to play if other teams boycotted Robinson. And his team’s front office wouldn’t listen to those who urged them to sign black players.

It wasn’t a momentary hesitation. It was not until September 1953 – nearly seven full seasons after Robinson arrived – that Wrigley signed two black players.

Mike Royko was born September 19^th, 1932, and penned his first newspaper column for the anti-Machine Chicago Daily News on September 6^th, 1963. Readers took to him instantly. Royko’s career spanned four decades and three major dailies, through the death of the Chicago Daily News, the sale of the Chicago Sun-Times to Rupert Murdoch, and the unlikely union between Royko and a reformed Chicago Tribune at the end of his career.

For all of those years, Royko was the voice, the reason, the conscience of Chicago. No one was considered above reproach, he shed light on the truth, and he spoke his mind.

Some one ought to name September 19^th, 2008 in Mike Royko’s honor, and every year thereafter. He should be required reading in every Illinois history class in Chicago, and “One More Time” should be available in every public library.

The Chicago Cubs will likely be under new ownership sometime soon. Instead of dwelling on whose responsible for the last 30 years of World Series drought, what would you give a new owner to bring a World Series Championship to the Northside?

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