Can you have a Cubs Convention without the Cubs?
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Apparently we’re about to find out.
The Cubs announced Monday that their annual convention will still take place on Jan. 15-17, 2027, at the Sheraton Grand Chicago, referring to it as “three action packed days celebrating all things Cubs baseball.”
That could mean anything from making beer cup snakes to waxing poetic over the Wrigley Field troughs, assuming the expected owners’ lockout is still in place in mid-January.
In a hot stove season without a stove, a Cubs Convention without the players seems about right.
Obviously, current stars like Pete Crow-Armstrong or Nico Hoerner would not be available to appear during a lockout, so former Cubs and your favorite Marquee Network celebrities might have to carry the load if the show goes on.
The Cubs didn’t announce what would occur at the convention if the lockout is in place, but we can only speculate it won’t include a Crane Kenney panel discussion on rat abatement at Wrigley Field, a “Late Night” talk show session with host Ryan Dempster interviewing co-owner Todd Ricketts, or a Ronnie “Woo-Woo” Wickers autograph session for the kids.
Three for the road
Three former Cubs managers — Lou Piniella, Dusty Baker and Joe Maddon — will be on the upcoming ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Contemporary Era. The 16-member committee, which is selected by the Hall, can vote for only three members on their ballots. Four-time world champion manager Bruce Bochy is considered a shoo-in, leaving two probable openings.
The other candidates are former Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner, former National League President Bill White and former executives Brian Sabean and Sandy Alderson.
Baker is eighth in all-time wins with 2,183, and seems like a lock to make it in his first year on the ballot. Piniella, who ranks 11th with 1,835 wins, just missed induction in his last year on the ballot in 2023, getting 11 of 16 votes, or one shy of the necessary 12. Maddon is 32nd with 1,216 wins, but of course is the only Cubs manager to win a World Series since 1908.
All three are ultimately deserving of a spot in Cooperstown, but hopefully Piniella and Baker get the nod this year and are part of the Class of ’27, with Maddon joining them down the road. Of the three, Maddon is probably the only one who would go in with a Cubs cap on his plaque. The ballot results will be announced Dec. 6.
Déjà vu
On Dec. 6, 1991, almost three years before the final weeks and postseason of the 1994 season were cancelled due to a players’ strike over a proposed salary cap, baiduhai baseball writer Jerome Holtzman warned what was at stake.
“If the players union agrees to a cap it would be helping the owners,” Holtzman wrote. “In effect, the union would be saying ‘Okay fellows, we know you can’t restrain yourself so from now on this is as high as you can go.’ Confronted with a ceiling, the Mets would have been unable to award free agent Bobby Bonilla $29 million for five years, an average of $5.8 million…. A cap would be a bonanza for the owners. No longer could they play ‘Can you top this?’ The price of playing poker would be stabilized, also the cost would be the same for all of the clubs, big and small.”
Holtzman, nicknamed “the Dean,” was a Hall of Fame writer who later wound up working for MLB as a historian at the end of his career. But as a baseball writer in ’91, he logically explained the union’s argument against a cap without taking sides.
It was a simple argument the union could still make today, albeit substituting Juan Soto’s 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets for Bonilla’s $29 million contract. Owners of different eras just can’t restrain themselves, especially when they’re playing in Queens.
Hearts and minds
With the latest lockout looming because of the owners’ renewed demand for a salary cap and floor, MLB has taken a much different tack than their predecessors in ’94. Instead of spending money on another middle reliever or bench guy, they agreed to an MLB ad campaign touting the need for a cap, trying to capture the hearts and minds of average fans.
“Level the Playing Field” was the name of the ad campaign, which began airing in July. MLB spokesperson Glen Caplin —whom Sports Business Journal said described himself as a “recovering political operative” — was seen as the brains behind the campaign.
He also worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid, so the owners hope this campaign works out a little better than that one did.
The ad consists of fans of different teams telling an off-screen interviewer they want a cap for “parity” or similar reasons. It also references a Morning Consult poll that claimed 79 percent of fans were in favor of a cap.
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“We think we have a responsibility to communicate with our fans on every platform and reach fans wherever they are on what we’re trying to solve in this round of labor negotiations,” Caplin said, according to SBJ.
The MLB Players Association hasn’t responded with an ad campaign of its own. But if the players were smart, they’d just cut a 30-second video of highlights of the Brewers’ championship parade in Milwaukee, along with the message, “Mission Accomplished.”
Wilbon takes medical leave
Chicago’s very own Michael Wilbon announced he was taking time off from ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” to deal with “multiple medical issues.”
“I have no idea how exactly this part of my journey will wind up,” Wilbon posted on social media. “The goal is to come out of it feeling much better than I do now and ready to return to sparring with Tony (Kornheiser).”
The show will continue in his absence, though it would probably make more sense to go on hiatus until Wilbon returns.
The show really is more about Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser and their long friendship. We know their every move after 25 years of PTI, including Wilbon’s love of all Chicago teams, but still watch religiously. The sports arguments are just peripheral, a reason for the two to pretend to disagree.
They’re the “Siskel & Ebert” of sports debate TV, and while the PTI guest hosts are fine, it’s just not the same when one or both of the stars is out.