I've been a Chicago Cubs fan pretty much my whole life. My first professional baseball game was at Wrigley Field. I watched the Cubs on WGN growing up. I got caught up in the Steve Bartman Game 6 NLCS debacle and the "WILL THE CUBS MAKE IT TO THE WORLD SERIES" hysteria of 2003 (answer: the Cubs lost to the Marlins). Heck, I met my husband 5-0 at an Iowa Cubs baseball game. This picture is where we sat for our first date:
Yes, we're in wedding attire because we love baseball and the Cubs so much, we got married at Principal Park!
When our daughter Kyra and I found a kitten in a window well, I talked everyone in to naming her "Addison Clark Sheffield Waveland Parizek", or Addison for short, since I've so far avoided naming any pet Wrigley, and I thought it would be a cute, more original homage to our Cubs fandom.
5-0 and I have met some famous Chicago Cubs here in Des Moines, including Kris Bryant. Of course a little over a year after this picture was taken, the Cubs decided they didn't want to pay KB what he was worth on the open market, and now he's with the Colorado Rockies.
Can you see where things are taking a dark turn?
The core of the 2016 World Champion Chicago Cubs is gone, save for David Ross, who is now the manager of what appears to be a sinking ship. The Cubs *say* they want to spend money on players, but they really don't
Cubs ownership, aka the Ricketts family, has sunk MILLIONS into real estate development around Wrigley Field. They own a hotel right next to Wrigley that costs approximately $1,000,000 per night to stay in on game days. The RIcketts own the rooftops, many of the merchandise stores, and they own bars and built The Park at Wrigley Field on what used to be the player parking lot right outside the stadium. If you can afford to stay at the hotel, and eat and drink outside the park at inside the park prices, the game day experience is better, or at least has modern amenities newer stadiums have.
But the Wrigleyville we all loved is all but gone. And it's gone at the expense of not fielding a team that can compete for another World Series championship. Cubs fans have watched many teams snap up the best free agents during the "hot stove" off season. And I'm not happy.
Addison Clark Sheffield Waveland may soon be dropping three of her four names.