Straight From the Heart: The signing of Ted Lilly (and Hendry almost dying)

[bjam12]

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/03/straight-from-the-heart-the-signing-of-ted-lilly.html

 

 

Really in-depth article about the Ted Lilly signing, the events leading up to it, and Hendry almost dying during the process. Really good stuff.

[Brian]

He has to know it was all worth it (almost dieing) for the glove slam and Ted running over Molina.

[CubinNY]

I love that a Hendry quote started with "obviously".

[bcl412]

The Hendry-era feels weird now that we've won a title.

[UMFan83]

Enjoyable read. Lilly was awesome, glad Hendry's heart held out long enough to close the deal and not kill him

[apete6]

The Hendry-era feels weird now that we've won a title.

 

Yeah. Ultimately for the long-term future of the franchise, it's better that we won it under Theo/Jed than we would have been if we won a "lightning in a bottle" title under Hendry like the White Sox did, but there will always be a part of me that loves the 03 and 07/08 teams and wishes they would have won.

[UMFan83]

The Hendry-era feels weird now that we've won a title.

 

Yeah. Ultimately for the long-term future of the franchise, it's better that we won it under Theo/Jed than we would have been if we won a "lightning in a bottle" title under Hendry like the White Sox did, but there will always be a part of me that loves the 03 and 07/08 teams and wishes they would have won.

 

That's actually kind of a rabbit hole I never thought of. How different the franchise would be today if the Cubs had won it in 03. Does the Tribune still sell the Cubs? If so, does the Ricketts family still buy them if they didn't have the historic drought anymore? Does the Trib Co authorize the spending spree that basically gave us 2 division titles in 07-08? Obviously its much less likely that Theo comes on board, etc etc etc

 

You could make a fairly solid case that the Game 6 collapse was indirectly a net positive for the franchise. Because they got so close and lost an entire generation of Cub fans became thirsty for the elusive championship, attendance skyrocketed, increased fan interest and enthusiasm created the level of accountability that the Cubs didn't have to deal with as much in the past. (this is where it starts to become a stretch) There were a lot of other factors at play, but this increased demand probably played some small part in the value of the Cubs franchise increasing. Perhaps this value increase made it more attractive for the Trib to sell off when Zell and Co were going through bankruptcy, causing them to open the checkbook and bring a bunch of veterans in which led to 2 fun playoff seasons but no long term vision. Once that run ended the Cubs were baren of young talent leading to a situation where a large market team with a historic championship drought basically had to start from scratch. Enter Theo who was looking for a situation like the Cubs and the rest is history.

[jersey cubs fan]

The Hendry-era feels weird now that we've won a title.

 

Yeah. Ultimately for the long-term future of the franchise, it's better that we won it under Theo/Jed than we would have been if we won a "lightning in a bottle" title under Hendry like the White Sox did, but there will always be a part of me that loves the 03 and 07/08 teams and wishes they would have won.

 

That's actually kind of a rabbit hole I never thought of. How different the franchise would be today if the Cubs had won it in 03. Does the Tribune still sell the Cubs? If so, does the Ricketts family still buy them if they didn't have the historic drought anymore? Does the Trib Co authorize the spending spree that basically gave us 2 division titles in 07-08? Obviously its much less likely that Theo comes on board, etc etc etc

 

You could make a fairly solid case that the Game 6 collapse was indirectly a net positive for the franchise. Because they got so close and lost an entire generation of Cub fans became thirsty for the elusive championship, attendance skyrocketed, increased fan interest and enthusiasm created the level of accountability that the Cubs didn't have to deal with as much in the past. (this is where it starts to become a stretch) There were a lot of other factors at play, but this increased demand probably played some small part in the value of the Cubs franchise increasing. Perhaps this value increase made it more attractive for the Trib to sell off when Zell and Co were going through bankruptcy, causing them to open the checkbook and bring a bunch of veterans in which led to 2 fun playoff seasons but no long term vision. Once that run ended the Cubs were baren of young talent leading to a situation where a large market team with a historic championship drought basically had to start from scratch. Enter Theo who was looking for a situation like the Cubs and the rest is history.

 

You make it sound like losing game 6 caused attendance to go up. Attendance rises following playoff runs, because fans initially doubt the success as the year begins but the year after a run (99, 04, 08, 16) the excitement is there at the beginning and attendance goes up. There's no doubt in my mind that the Tribune still sells after WS victory. They were in a financial situation that demanded liquidation of non-core assets. The only question is if the new buyer would have held onto Hendry any longer and/or not gone after Theo & Co.

 

I'd bet very heavily that a post 2003 WS appearing and maybe winning team would have been no better off by the time the team would have been sold, because of Hendry's terribly inefficient way of valuing hitting. They would have sold the team, the team would have been bad and the new owner would feel lots of pressure to make management changes.

 

Losing game 6 didn't gain the Cubs anything.

[mul21]

And don't forget to factor in the financing plan Zell required for the purchase so he didn't have to pay as much in taxes on the sale. That factor alone greatly narrowed the field of potential buyers so we possibly end up with the Ricketts anyway.

[UMFan83]

 

Yeah. Ultimately for the long-term future of the franchise, it's better that we won it under Theo/Jed than we would have been if we won a "lightning in a bottle" title under Hendry like the White Sox did, but there will always be a part of me that loves the 03 and 07/08 teams and wishes they would have won.

 

That's actually kind of a rabbit hole I never thought of. How different the franchise would be today if the Cubs had won it in 03. Does the Tribune still sell the Cubs? If so, does the Ricketts family still buy them if they didn't have the historic drought anymore? Does the Trib Co authorize the spending spree that basically gave us 2 division titles in 07-08? Obviously its much less likely that Theo comes on board, etc etc etc

 

You could make a fairly solid case that the Game 6 collapse was indirectly a net positive for the franchise. Because they got so close and lost an entire generation of Cub fans became thirsty for the elusive championship, attendance skyrocketed, increased fan interest and enthusiasm created the level of accountability that the Cubs didn't have to deal with as much in the past. (this is where it starts to become a stretch) There were a lot of other factors at play, but this increased demand probably played some small part in the value of the Cubs franchise increasing. Perhaps this value increase made it more attractive for the Trib to sell off when Zell and Co were going through bankruptcy, causing them to open the checkbook and bring a bunch of veterans in which led to 2 fun playoff seasons but no long term vision. Once that run ended the Cubs were baren of young talent leading to a situation where a large market team with a historic championship drought basically had to start from scratch. Enter Theo who was looking for a situation like the Cubs and the rest is history.

 

You make it sound like losing game 6 caused attendance to go up. Attendance rises following playoff runs, because fans initially doubt the success as the year begins but the year after a run (99, 04, 08, 16) the excitement is there at the beginning and attendance goes up. There's no doubt in my mind that the Tribune still sells after WS victory. They were in a financial situation that demanded liquidation of non-core assets. The only question is if the new buyer would have held onto Hendry any longer and/or not gone after Theo & Co.

 

I'd bet very heavily that a post 2003 WS appearing and maybe winning team would have been no better off by the time the team would have been sold, because of Hendry's terribly inefficient way of valuing hitting. They would have sold the team, the team would have been bad and the new owner would feel lots of pressure to make management changes.

 

Losing game 6 didn't gain the Cubs anything.

 

Fair rebuttal. The one thing I will say about attendance is that it did make a leap after 2004 but it looks like the trend really started after 1998. Before that they would hover around the 2.1m mark, 2.4ish if they had a good year. Between 98-2002 they were in a 2.6-2.8m range. In 2004, they started a run of 8 straight years over 3 million on attendance.

 

Can you really attribute that to long term increased demand following a near miss title run and not a) general sports attendance trends, b) wrigley expanding bleachers and overall capacity, c) other things like better marketing, etc? Probably not all the way. My opinion was probably also shaped by my world view as the Cubs became a much bigger thing in my life in 2003 so to me it might have seemed like there was an increase in overall interest in the Cubs when it was only the standard marginal boost after a playoff run.

[Brian707]

If you want to go way back, 1984 was the year that really started to make attendance and Wrigleyville the place to be. Wrigleyville was a dump, and until the mid 80's you could have purchased any of the buildings on Waveland for example for cheap.

[jersey cubs fan]

If you want to go way back, 1984 was the year that really started to make attendance and Wrigleyville the place to be. Wrigleyville was a dump, and until the mid 80's you could have purchased any of the buildings on Waveland for example for cheap.

1984 was definitely an awaking but it was still easy and cheap to get seats for any game at wrigley until the late 90's

 

 

 

sidenote it was also possible to get into yankee stadium for $8 in the mid-90s.

[apete6]

If you want to go way back, 1984 was the year that really started to make attendance and Wrigleyville the place to be. Wrigleyville was a dump, and until the mid 80's you could have purchased any of the buildings on Waveland for example for cheap.

 

Yeah, my friend's dad says he backed out of a deal to buy one of the rooftop buildings for like $175K in the 80s and rues it to this day. To be fair, he was a public school teacher not exactly rolling in cash.

[Sammy Sofa]

If you want to go way back, 1984 was the year that really started to make attendance and Wrigleyville the place to be. Wrigleyville was a dump, and until the mid 80's you could have purchased any of the buildings on Waveland for example for cheap.

1984 was definitely an awaking but it was still easy and cheap to get seats for any game at wrigley until the late 90's

 

 

 

sidenote it was also possible to get into yankee stadium for $8 in the mid-90s.

 

Yeah, Sammy basically made it the ticket it became; right up until then I remember going to games most summers where the plan was always "just show up and buy tickets that day because there was, of course, going to be a horsefeathers ton of them not sold."