Chicago Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein appeared on the David Kaplan show on Chicago’s WGN AM 720 last night. He was joined by Executive Vice President and General Manager Jed Hoyer as part of a love remote broadcast from the 2014 Cubs Convention. The topic of Cubs fan extreme commitment to their team and their brand came up, with hilarious results.
They panel discussed the Cubs 105 year title drought and the fatalism that can accompany it.
David Kaplan: “my Dad died and never got to see the Cubs win, there’s a lot of people who go yeah my Dad died, my mom died, this guy right here died, my friend died, and never got to see it. I’m scared that I’m going to die and not get to see it.”
(the ballroom erupted with laughter)
“If I stay in shape and eat right, I’ll probably see us at least contending.”
Theo Epstein: “I’m sorry to hear that you’re having issues with your own mortality”
Then the topic changed to the different kind of pressure that comes with playing at Wrigley Field. The stadium is like an edifice of social media: everything in blown out of proportion. Wrigley Field is like Twitter, an amplifier of emotion
Kaplan: I take you back to ’08, the Cubs win 97 games, they take a 2-0 lead in game one on a DeRosa home run, they get grand slammed from Loney of the Dodgers that place you could hear a pin drop in there that’s how quiet the fans were. They’re like “it’s over.” It’s the fifth inning. Game over. People panic. We could be up 12-0 in the ninth inning with two out, “hey it’s the Cubs man, they’re going to screw this thing up.” We’ve seen it, do you tell prospects this?
Jed Hoyer: “Certainly Chicago is living that right now. There’s a lot of truth to that and both Theo and I grew up with that in New England. That’s what it was like to be a Boston Red Sox fan, to expect the bottom to fall out. We lived through that, we went to work and that changed. Watching the World Series this year, you expect the Red Sox to win. It’s amazing that in ten years you went from a city that expected the floor to fall out to a city that expects to win because they’ve done it two other times. And once you have that one team that can do that it changes the psyche completely.”
Right after this segment, Anthony Rizzo had some interesting comments about scoping out the female talent in the stands at Wrigley Field. And of course the story of Cubs Con Day 1 was the premiere of the Wrigley Field 100 film. (review)
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments discussing: Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Bears and Bulls on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)