BCB Interviews Ricketts and Kenney

[David]

I know Yellon isn't exactly everyone's favorite guy here, but I stumbled onto this and figured I'd pass it on.

 

 

http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2010/3/12/1368720/bcb-interview-tom-ricketts-and

 

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to sit down at length with new Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts and team president Crane Kenney to discuss just about anything that has to do with the future of our favorite team.

 

If you've read this site for a while, you know that I've had the chance to interview Crane Kenney before. This was the first time I had met Tom Ricketts in person -- and I can tell you, that the way he has seemed in his public statements since taking over team ownership last October is exactly the way he is. He's a genuinely nice guy and a true diehard fan just like all of us. There's nothing he wants more than exactly what we want -- a World Series championship on the north side of Chicago, and I believe he'll do whatever it takes to help bring that to all of us.

 

Many thanks to Tom and Crane for their time and candid answers to my questions. Crane Kenney met with the news media yesterday in Arizona and spoke about some of the same things you'll read after the jump. Also, this Sun-Times article has some comments from Kenney, particularly regarding the spring training complex.

 

One final note before you dive in: the discussion lasted almost an hour and was wide-ranging. There are almost 8,000 words after the jump. Take your time and take it all in.

[UMFan83]

One time years ago you said, "I wonder if he reads this." I do read it. And actually I read the question and should have sent back something to say I do. So it’s interesting, my focus groups, I do this during the season, but reading your open blog forums and the dialogue that goes on it’s really instructive for us, so we do read it.

 

This quote from Crane is interesting. I know he's referring to BCB but I would think it's not crazy to suggest he might read here too even though we barely talk about the Cubs anymore.

[David]

CK: We’ve got something else coming that you’ll like. When I was out at Six Flags last year with my kids, I took them out there in the summer and they had these misters, which were interesting. They were like a stainless steel column that you can walk up to and they sense your presence and they mist.

 

BCB: Is it like a misting station?

 

CK: Yes. We’re going to have them under the bleachers.

 

 

lol, hadn't heard of this one before... couldn't be bad I guess

[David]

One time years ago you said, "I wonder if he reads this." I do read it. And actually I read the question and should have sent back something to say I do. So it’s interesting, my focus groups, I do this during the season, but reading your open blog forums and the dialogue that goes on it’s really instructive for us, so we do read it.

 

This quote from Crane is interesting. I know he's referring to BCB but I would think it's not crazy to suggest he might read here too even though we barely talk about the Cubs anymore.

 

 

Yea, I would bet they check it out from time to time. I'm sure Tim knows.

[David]

Another interesting quote...

 

BCB: So some of those names that were thrown out, you did probably actually look at them and then make a decision?

 

TR: Yeah, well, there’s some good players that were traded, just a couple of them, but yeah. If there’s a way to work it out so we can have one of these guys, well cool.

 

CK: Like the Curtis Granderson discussion before we got Marlon Byrd. Like everyone is saying, "They should get Granderson." Well, if you look at what the Tigers said, "We have to get back a center fielder." Our system didn’t match up with them.

 

TR: But if we had a center fielder then we wouldn’t need yours.

 

CK: So then Jim involves a third team. So it’s not, you don’t accept that you don’t have the players, so you get creative and you involve a third team and well they have a center fielder do they match up with us? It’s sort of like three-dimensional. You work with more and more teams and Jim looked at that equation to see what would work for us. And ultimately we decided that giving something directly for Marlon was our answer. It doesn’t mean people say why didn’t they try? We looked and a fit makeup really wasn’t there.

 

 

BTW, I sort of like where Ricketts mentioned that we've been in the right place 2 of the last 3 years by getting to the playoffs and that we just got unlucky. It suggests to me that he's got the right mindset in that regard.

[David]

TR: You know, it’s kind of funny. Last fall I was going through some papers on my desk and I found my business school application and it was an essay written in 1990, and I wrote in there, they asked one of the questions, "What’s your dream job?" and I wrote I’d like to own the Chicago Cubs or a baseball team and I thought oh, I really said that? But I do remember I was living at the corner, I was living above the Sports Corner bar that year when I was filling out my applications so it showed that I was interested, but maybe it just shows that I was lazy that day and looked outside and said maybe one of those. It’s always been a dream. Not for a long time but… I was a trader on the floor from ’87-’94. I was doing fantasy baseball leagues at that time. I read everything Bill James wrote during that time, and it’s funny, it’s kind of like that new spin on baseball, kind of a more thoughtful spin on baseball. It brought a lot of people in. It made people think a little harder and it, it gave baseball more texture than it had in the past, at least for me. And of course, obviously living right up here and going to so many games. I love business, I love baseball, being able to do both at once is terrific. And then to combine it with the family is just, that’s another game. You know the money for buying the team came from my dad. I have a very, very successful investment banking firm, but that’s not what’s paying for this team. It’s my dad and what he did to start AmeriTrade. And based on that we had some money set in a trust it was just sitting there and none of us cared about diversification or portfolios or, you know, it just wasn’t exciting to us. So just a few years ago I thought, you know the Tribune’s going to have to sell that team because the Trib was going to sell to an equity firm? So we just kind of threw our hat in the ring and spent three years to get it done, but it’s been in my head for a long time.

 

BCB: You mentioned reading the Bill James books. Are you looking towards, are either one of you looking towards bring more statistical analysis people in here to help out the baseball people in their evaluations?

TR: In some fashion. I think if we can find someone who would be value added to Jim and his team, we would take a look at that. But nothing hard core right now and there isn’t anybody selected or anything like that. And to work with, not try to come in from some completely different field and not ambush anybody just bring him in and put that extra glove in our bag, because I think there are teams doing more than we are and we should look at that.

 

 

yay

Edited March 13, 2010 by David

[UMFan83]

BTW, I sort of like where Ricketts mentioned that we've been in the right place 2 of the last 3 years by getting to the playoffs and that we just got unlucky. It suggests to me that he's got the right mindset in that regard.

 

Disagree. We need to dismantle a 97 win team in order to address perceived issues that gave us trouble when matched up with 1 team for 3 games.

[Clem Fandango]

CK: We’ve got something else coming that you’ll like. When I was out at Six Flags last year with my kids, I took them out there in the summer and they had these misters, which were interesting. They were like a stainless steel column that you can walk up to and they sense your presence and they mist.

 

BCB: Is it like a misting station?

 

CK: Yes. We’re going to have them under the bleachers.

 

 

lol, hadn't heard of this one before... couldn't be bad I guess

 

They routinely have these at summer outdoor concert festivals. They are the most glorious thing ever when the weather is blazing hot. if/when they add those they will be extremely popular in the summer time

[David]

Yea, I've seen them before... just meant I hadn't heard of them being put in the bleachers before this.

 

I actually thought it was funny that Kenney talked about them like he hadn't seen them before... I loved those things 10 or 15 years ago when I would go to GA as a kid.

[David]

Another interesting quote...

 

BCB: So some of those names that were thrown out, you did probably actually look at them and then make a decision?

 

TR: Yeah, well, there’s some good players that were traded, just a couple of them, but yeah. If there’s a way to work it out so we can have one of these guys, well cool.

 

CK: Like the Curtis Granderson discussion before we got Marlon Byrd. Like everyone is saying, "They should get Granderson." Well, if you look at what the Tigers said, "We have to get back a center fielder." Our system didn’t match up with them.

 

TR: But if we had a center fielder then we wouldn’t need yours.

 

CK: So then Jim involves a third team. So it’s not, you don’t accept that you don’t have the players, so you get creative and you involve a third team and well they have a center fielder do they match up with us? It’s sort of like three-dimensional. You work with more and more teams and Jim looked at that equation to see what would work for us. And ultimately we decided that giving something directly for Marlon was our answer. It doesn’t mean people say why didn’t they try? We looked and a fit makeup really wasn’t there.

 

 

BTW, I sort of like where Ricketts mentioned that we've been in the right place 2 of the last 3 years by getting to the playoffs and that we just got unlucky. It suggests to me that he's got the right mindset in that regard.

 

 

TR: Well, if you look at how it’s done.. that first round of playoffs is a coin flip. Not to say that we don’t want to be the better team, we don’t want to have all that stuff going on, but the fact is, let’s get to the playoffs. And for us, we can do it every year. We have the payroll. We have the larger market, we have some good competitors, but we should, if we develop our own talent and be consistent, just bring up guys and be smart, there’s no reason why we can’t be at the top of the division every year.