By Jasmine Hauser and Mark Weyermuller -
The Ricketts Family bought the Chicago Cubs October 27, 2009 from the Chicago Tribune. As board chairman of the Chicago Cubs, Tom Ricketts keeps his politics close to the vest. The rest of the family is quite different.
His father, Joe Ricketts, is the founder and former CEO of TD Ameritrade, but often is known for his Super Pac called Ending Spending, Inc., a 501(c)4 organization which supports Republican candidates. The group's director is Tom's brother Todd Ricketts.
Not to be outdone in conservative politics, brother Pete Ricketts was just elected Governor of Nebraska as a Republican. Their sister, Laura Ricketts, is on the other end of the spectrum as a large Barack Obama supporter and fundraiser.
Tom, again, has not been very political but he was spotted at the Bruce Rauner victory party the night he won the Illinois governorship. All four siblings are members of the Chicago Cubs Board of Directors.
Despite rumors that Major League Baseball wants the Chicago Cubs to play Opening Night at the White Sox US Cellular Field because of unfinished reconstruction at Wrigley Field, the Cubbies will open the regular season against their legendary rivals St. Louis Cardinals on Easter Sunday, April 5 at 7:05 pm.
During and after a 40 minute luncheon presentation at Maggiano’s Restaurant sponsored by the The City Club of Chicago, Cubs baseball owner, Chairman and Wilmette resident Tom Ricketts told an overflow crowd that the projected 4-phase, $575-million renovation of the ballpark will take longer than originally planned by up to one year, ending in the 2018-2019 season. And while much of the ballpark will still be under construction Opening Night, fans will see their team play ball at “the friendly confines.”
Ricketts opened his presentation with a feel-good “Let’s Go” video filled with heart-warming photography of classic spring training shots, uplifting music, and cool slow-motion edits that would pump up even a White Sox fan.
Using a visual “Blueprint to Success: On the Field and in the Ballpark,” Ricketts highlighted the parallels between building the baseball organization and building the ballpark: define goals; find the right people; de-construct; build the foundation; strengthen the foundation; add to the foundation. In preparing to win a World Series, the goal for the Cubs is to scout the best talent and to develop players.
In fact, during the question and answer period after his presentation, an audience member asked how the Cubs will address the growing international baseball talent and how they are evaluated. Ricketts noted that 20% of MLB players are from Latin American (Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Panama, etc.).
“It’s a really interesting process. When a good, young player is 12 or 13, and he lives in the Dominican Republic, he gets found by a “buscon” –which is a derivative of the verb “buscar”, to find—he gets a finder. And that person signs him to a contract when he is 12 or 13 years old, works out with him, makes him part of his group of players, and when he turns 16, the “buscon” takes that player around to tryout for all 30 teams --or as many teams that will give him a tryout-- and when that player signs, the buscon gets a cut of the fee. So what we do –one of the first things we did was-- we rebuilt our Dominican training facility. We had probably the worst or tied for worst facility in all of baseball. We bought 50 acres in the Dominican Republic and built the best Dominican training facility so we can more effectively compete for those players."
But the dollars spent overseas are capped by MLB, with rules, and the Cubs have had to be strategic about which players they signed and when. Two seasons ago, they overspent in the international draft to get the top young players in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Taiwan. They picked those spots, and now that relations with Cuba is changing, it remains one country where they will have to be “nimble and thoughtful” when scouting for talent internationally.
