Cubs President Andy MacPhail and General Manager Ed Lynch plead for time. But, sorry, time’s up.
Just got here, you say? Too bad.
That’s how it works when you go 88 years between championships, soon to be 89. Cubs fans know more about doing time than anybody. Arriving late at the scene of the accident is not a valid excuse.
History is never past with the Cubs, who repeat the same mistakes for manager Jim Riggleman that they did for Charlie Grimm, the best-named Cub of all time.
No one suspected when peace came to the world in 1945 the Cubs would take it so seriously, bowing out of the fight forevermore after losing in seven games that last World Series year to Detroit. And let’s have no talk about those 1984 and 1989 division winners, small fish with more bones than taste.
Perhaps the organization was plain tuckered out 51 years ago. After losing seven World Series appearances in a row dating back to 1918, another armistice year, guess they wanted to give peace a chance.
All right, it didn’t work. Time to rearm and reload, get the war wagon rolling, fix bayonets, take no prisoners.
But instead of ministers of war, rabble-rousers pounding a shoe on the table like Khrushchev and belligerently demanding a left-handed starter or a much-needed left-handed slugger to hit behind Sammy Sosa, Cubs management espouses a go-slow philosophy that befits its conservative ownership. Gray battleships don’t hurry.
“I know people don’t want to hear it, but nothing comes fast and furious, with willy-nilly acquisitions,” MacPhail said. “I could have made some very popular acquisitions in the last two, three weeks . . . but the price was too steep.”
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Fans question, however, if bottom lines mean more to Tribune Co. than line drives, whether MacPhail’s employee manual explained the benefit of prudence, caution and stock options.
“Andy is perfect for the Tribune,” one longtime baseball observer noted. “He looks the part and he’ll play the part. He’ll do what he’s told.”
So, instead of aggression, many disdain that it’s Tribune business, as usual, where company executives sit around that traditional potbellied stove and chat over profit margins, not why getting a third baseman to replace Ron Santo is now a project in its 23rd year.
“First of all, there’s very little, if any, profit margin in baseball today,” MacPhail said.
Then do they chew the fat about why the Bermuda Triangle of third base-shortstop-left field is where Cubs hitters go to die? Only left-fielder Luis Gonzalez has escaped alive this season with run production that mirrors his talent.
“Slow, steady, unspectacular progress,” MacPhail said.
He was speaking about his motto, not the Cubs in the 20th Century. He believes progress has been made in small steps.
To what, mediocrity?
“You say mediocre, I say average,” he said of the team he has. “Maybe not as flamboyant as people would like.”
Lynch pointed to a hard fact.
“This could be the first year in 25 years the organization has a team better than .500 for two straight years,” he said.
Keep the champagne on ice, though. That’s not official.
With a $30.9 million payroll, can’t fans expect more? Many wonder why the team is only at the break-even point in the standings when stands are overflowing at Wrigley Field, pumping a revenue stream to Tribune Co. that seldom finds its way to the significant free agents.
“Not long ago, the team had a payroll more than $40 million and was finishing last because some of the decision-making went wrong,” Lynch said of a previous administration run by Larry Himes, who proved once again that dictators fall on their own swords. “Tribune Co. has shown a strong financial commitment since the 1981 purchase.”
MacPhail said Tribune Co. executives will give him a bigger 1997 budget, “a significant bump up.” How that money gets spent depends in part on whether Mark Grace, Jaime Navarro and Brian McRae leave.
Baseball insiders chide Cubs management for showing weakness in agreeing to contracts with Grace and Navarro that permit them to walk away this winter. McRae is undecided as a free agent, skeptical if management will pay to build a winner in his lifetime, joining quite a long generational line there.
“There’s not too many deals like Grace and Navarro got,” said a front-office official with another major-league club. “You don’t let players hold you up and affect your other personnel decisions. It’s a ripple effect.
“Their drafts haven’t been bad, to be honest. And Andy’s reputation is outstanding, exceptional. He’s respected. But they haven’t done a lot yet to judge them on.”
MacPhail’s reasoning for giving player options to Grace and Navarro was they could get three-year commitments elsewhere while he was willing to offer just two years.
Should the Cubs lose this trio in the next few months, it would strip them of one of baseball’s best hitters and team leaders, the staff’s leading winner and most durable pitcher and the best defensive center-fielder the Cubs have had in years.
MacPhail is a staunch player-development disciple, but while Tribune Co. is willing to give him lots more time, the fans and his players won’t wait patiently. Especially if they have to age by enduring another youth movement in 1997.
“Sometimes it’s more a test of the stomach than the intellect,” MacPhail said.
If so, the fans would like to see more guts sooner rather than later.
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