Tom Ricketts and Family Buy the Chicago Cubs

Cubbies find their money man

The Chicago Cubs were the baseball team for whom the infamous phrase “wait until next year” was unofficially coined. Since 1908, the team has not won the World Series. They have been at the center of an intense love-hate relationship for Chicago sports fans for nearly that long. No amount of internal player development or free agent money has been able to right the ship. Sure, they could take secured loans for quick cash for the team. Yet would they spend it wisely ? Or would they pay to reanimate “Three Finger” Brown and coax Ron Santo back onto the field?

The alleged causes for the Cubs’ curse are many, but they tend to gravitate toward the “Curse of the Billy Goat.” Supposedly this happened in 1945 when Billy Sianis (the owner of Billy Goat Tavern) was asked to leave Wrigley Field during a series game because the pet goat he brought with him was entirely too smelly. Sianis was outraged; he proclaimed, “Them Cubs, they aren’t gonna win no more!” And when it comes to the World Series, they haven’t.

The Ricketts family wants to change that

Carrie Muskat reports for MLB.com that a new ownership group’s bid has been accepted. Chicago’s Tribune Company newspaper empire will sell the Chicago Cubs to the Tom Ricketts and family. Sale was finalized over the Fourth of July weekend according to sources close to the deal. Now the deal must be approved by other baseball owners and the courts, as the Tribune Co. was in the middle of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Tom Ricketts and Family Buy the Chicago Cubs "