November 2, 2017

 NBC Sports , Looking ahead with Jon Lester as Cubs try to reload for another World Series run http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/looking-ahead-jon-lester-cubs-try-reload-another-world-series-run

 NBC Sports Chicago, If not , Cubs will need to find another closer with 'huge balls' http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/if-not-wade-davis-cubs-will-need-find-another-closer-huge-balls

 Chicago Tribune, Jake Arrieta, Wade Davis lead list of Cubs free agents http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-jake-arrieta-wade-davis-free-agency- 20171102-story.html

 Chicago Tribune, As Cubs head into offseason of uncertainty, brain trust must think big http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-offseason-challenge-haugh-spt-1102- 20171101-column.html

 Chicago Tribune, isn't afraid to take chances — detractors be damned http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-gold-maddon-factor-20171026-story.html

 Chicago Tribune, Raise a glass: The dawn of the Golden Era of Cubs baseball http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-gold-golden-era-20171101-story.html

 Chicago Tribune, Cubs fans' love of endures, even as ballpark keeps changing http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-gold-wrigley-field-20171026-column.html

 Chicago Tribune, Ricketts family's ownership of Cubs is hardly business as usual http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-gold-ricketts-20171101-story.html

 Cubs.com, Inbox: Will Almora see everyday play in 2018? http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/260344156/will-cubs-albert-almora-jr-play-every-day/

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NBC Sports Chicago Looking ahead with Jon Lester as Cubs try to reload for another World Series run By Patrick Mooney

Jon Lester could never pick up a baseball again and the Cubs would still be satisfied with their $155 million investment. The parade down Michigan Avenue will always be worth it.

But 362 days later, Lester isn’t ready to spend all his time hunting in Georgia and playing celebrity golf events. The Cubs still absolutely need Lester’s presence and credibility. Not to prove that this franchise is serious about winning — the way his decision to sign with a last-place team after the 2014 season accelerated the rebuild — but to again anchor a rotation that might be at its most vulnerable point since those summers of flip deals.

Super-agent Scott Boras wants to keep all big-market teams in play for leverage — and Jake Arrieta is too savvy to completely rule out a return — but signs point to the Cy Young Award winner getting his nine-figure megadeal somewhere else. The expectation is John Lackey will retire and become the anti-, only popping up in

Twitter photos when his family goes trick-or-treating with the Arrietas and Tommy La Stella. The farm system isn’t producing internal solutions anytime soon.

That leaves Lester, Kyle Hendricks, Jose Quintana and two giant question marks for this winter, the Cubs likely pursuing one free-agent starter (Alex Cobb?) and trading from their surplus of hitters (Ian Happ?) to get a young and continue the momentum from three straight trips to the Championship Series.

“Everybody involved has done nothing but deliver on their promises to me when I signed here,” Lester said, crediting by name chairman Tom Ricketts, team president , general and manager Joe Maddon after the dismantled the Cubs in the NLCS.

“I know you guys are probably sick of me by now, but I’ve got a guaranteed three more to go, so suck on that one,” Lester said, cracking up the reporters surrounding his locker inside the Wrigley Field clubhouse. “Hopefully, in those next three years, we’re able to maybe win another one or two. That’s up to these younger guys to carry my load on that one.”

Lester has credited Hendricks for the unmatched preparation that made him the Game 1 starter against the in the first round of the playoffs, and raved about Quintana’s work ethic and personality since getting traded from the White Sox during the All-Star break.

But even with the blockbuster Quintana deal, the Cubs are still bracing for the possibility of replacing 40 percent of their rotation, at a time when Lester is about to turn 34 and coming off a season where he put up his lowest number of innings (180.2) since 2007 (when he was still recovering from a cancer diagnosis and lymphoma treatments). Lester’s 4.33 ERA was almost exactly the league average and his trip to the disabled list in the middle of August/early September was his first since 2011.

“Halfway through, I think we’re really happy with the first half of that deal,” Epstein said. “It’s been a really nice success for him and for us. That’s really the half of the deal that’s the key when you make those kinds of deals. If you don’t get return on the first half, you’re probably in trouble.

“You better get production in the first half of those deals — or it’s going to end up being a big mistake.”

The Cubs hope Lester can model Andy Pettitte, the left-handed pitcher he’s been compared to since coming up with the . Pettitte got some, uh, help, admitting to using human growth hormone while recovering from an elbow injury in 2002, his reputation stained in the Mitchell Report. But the overall picture of Pettitte is someone who won four World Series rings with the , accounted for 276-plus innings in the playoffs and started 30 times during his age-41 season.

No matter what happens from here, Lester has been worth every penny. No one else in the big leagues has made at least 30 starts in each of the last 10 seasons. He essentially averaged a per inning this season and is only a year removed from finishing second in the NL Cy Young vote.

“In Jon’s case, look, he still has all the characteristics that we think make him an effective pitcher and a reliable bet going forward,” Epstein said, “because his mechanics are still sound. His arm — he had a little bit of shoulder fatigue — but bounced back from that. Knock on wood, he’s avoided any kind of significant injury.

“He’s shown the ability to pitch — and pitch effectively — without his best stuff on certain days when he doesn’t have it. He had a few uncharacteristic really rough outings this year and was prone to the long ball more than normal.

“But besides that, he had some really nice stretches where he was sort of everything we hoped he could be. We’re counting on him to be a really big part of our pitching staff moving forward.”

The bottom line is that Lester has guts and the Cubs have faith that he will somehow figure out a way to compete. He shut down Washington for six innings in Game 2, leaving with a 2-1 lead before a bullpen meltdown at Nationals Park. He retired the first 10 Washington hitters he faced as a Game 4 reliever at Wrigley Field, a sign of how much the Cubs wanted to win that day. Three days later, he exited a 1-1 NLCS game at Dodger Stadium in the fifth inning, which will be remembered for Justin Turner’s three-run walk-off homer against Lackey.

This will be an opportunity for Lester to show even more of his personality, take on a more vocal leadership role, work with a new pitching (Jim Hickey) and maybe even cement his spot in the Hall of Fame with another World Series run.

“I don’t really care what people say about me on the field,” Lester said. “I may be an a------. I may show my emotions too much. I might show up the umpire too many times. I may yell at hitters. I don’t really care. But in this clubhouse — with my guys and my team — that’s what drives me.

“When I walk away from this game — just like if John Lackey walks away — (I want) everybody in this clubhouse (to) say the exact same thing: ‘That sumb---- had our back.’

“At the end of the day, man, the stats and all that other BS, that’s great. But that’s what I want. That’s what I want my guys to say about me.”

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NBC Sports Chicago If not Wade Davis, Cubs will need to find another closer with 'huge balls' By Patrick Mooney

Imagine a Cubs bullpen without Wade Davis, working under the bright lights of the World Series, trying to contain an explosive offense with the roof closed at Minute Maid Park.

That’s a scary Halloween thought for a manager who got second-guessed throughout October, a front office philosophically opposed to big-money, long-term contracts for closers and a fan base that now expects to be watching playoff baseball every year at Wrigley Field.

But the Cubs can’t be the team they envision — winning between 88 and 100-plus games every season for the foreseeable future and putting another World Series flag next to the iconic center-field scoreboard — without Davis or another elite ninth-inning pitcher.

“He’s got huge balls,” Cubs president Theo Epstein said. “No moment’s too big for him.”

Davis — who seemed to purposely avoid talking about The Streak when he set a franchise record by converting his first 32 chances in a Cubs uniform — is about as low-maintenance and drama-free as an All-Star closer gets. You might not remember any of those regular-season saves or his Wrigley Field warm-up music (Dr. Dre’s “Ackrite”). But Davis made a lasting playoff impression with his epic elimination-game save against the Washington Nationals (seven outs, 44 pitches) and gutsy Game 4 performance in the National League Championship Series (six outs, 48 pitches).

“He wants the ball,” Epstein said. “And he can get good hitters out, because he’s got stuff that when he executes it, it’s just about impossible to square up.”

If getting dominated by the Los Angeles Dodgers in that NLCS was an eye-opening experience — their relievers faced 58 hitters and gave up four hits and allowed zero runs in 17 innings — then the World Series should be another reminder of how much work the Cubs have to do to get back there.

While the Astros have so far been able to outhit their very shaky bullpen, Los Angeles is one loss away from a World Series failure because its relievers headed into Tuesday night’s must-win Game 6 at Dodger Stadium with a 5.32 ERA (15 total runs allowed in 23.2 innings).

Outside of Pedro Strop for an at-bat or two — and maybe Carl Edwards Jr. if he’s on that night or lefty Mike Montgomery in the right matchup — is there anyone on the Cubs roster now that you would trust to face George Springer, , Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa in a one-run game?

Another October with a hyper-focus on the bullpen means Davis will get paid as a free agent, the year after a record-setting winter for closers, though even he doesn’t seem to think that ’s five-year, $86 million megadeal with the New York Yankees is a realistic target.

But it’s also not realistic to think that the Cubs can take a mix-and-match approach with the ninth inning or hope an internal candidate can grow into the high-pressure job in 2018. Elite closers have an outsized influence on the contending teams the Cubs expect to be between here and 2021.

“What they’ve proven is — when you’re on the verge of extinction — how valuable they are,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “Because not everybody can handle those moments. Aroldis was able to dominate. I can’t tell you necessarily that Wade has dominated, but Wade knows how to pitch to the point where he’s going to get both righties and lefties out, based on his pitch-ability.

“Chappy was more of this blunt object. He just could overpower people, but he could do it often. There are certain guys when you get really back to the wall ... there’s not many of them, but those that are out there are really, really valuable.”

Maybe the Cubs have valid concerns about a pitcher who recently turned 32 and spent parts of the 2016 season on the disabled list with a forearm strain and a flexor strain. There could be bigger needs — like replacing 40 percent of the rotation — and multiple holes to fill in the bullpen. But Davis went above and beyond what the Cubs could have hoped for when they traded Jorge Soler to the during last year’s winter meetings.

“We’d love to have Wade Davis back,” Epstein said during his year-end Wrigley Field press conference. “We all know it’s more complicated that that. Wanting doesn’t mean having. And it’s a complicated landscape in the offseason.”

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Chicago Tribune Jake Arrieta, Wade Davis lead list of Cubs free agents By Mark Gonzales

The World Series ended Wednesday night, but the Cubs already are in the midst of planning for the 2018 season. They’ve planned for the possibility of departures, as eight players were expected to file for free agency Thursday morning.

Pitchers Jake Arrieta and Wade Davis lead the list of Cubs players expected to file, although President Theo Epstein said Oct. 20 that he has interest in re-signing both.

Arrieta, 31, the 2015 National League Cy Young Award winner who has averaged 18 victories in the last three seasons, will be one of the top free-agent on the market. Davis, 32, converted 32 of 33 save opportunities last season in addition to posting a 2.30 ERA in 59 games.

The Cubs have an exclusive five-day window to negotiate with their current free agents. If they offer salary arbitration but their free agents reject it and sign elsewhere, the Cubs would receive a compensatory draft pick. The Cubs’ other free agents are outfielder Jon Jay, relievers Brian Duensing and Koji Uehara, Alex Avila and Rene Rivera, and pitcher John Lackey — who hasn’t announced his intentions for 2018.

The Cubs and the other 29 major-league teams can contact other free agents but cannot discuss monetary terms until after the five-day window expires Monday night.

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Chicago Tribune As Cubs head into offseason of uncertainty, brain trust must think big By David Haugh

A year ago Thursday, at exactly 11:47 p.m., the ball hit Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo's mitt at Progressive Field in Cleveland and the ground shook in Chicago, creating good vibrations that lasted long enough to diminish any disappointment in 2017.

A year later, the Cubs reluctantly relinquished their status of World Series champions after a Fall Classic between the Dodgers and Astros that exceeded theirs in terms of entertainment and drama, if not historical significance.

Suddenly, a Cubs team coming off its third straight National League Championship Series officially heads into baseball's offseason with uncertainty outweighing invincibility and doubt replacing any talk of a dynasty. Project the Top 10 teams in baseball in 2018. How can anyone objectively place the Cubs higher than seventh, behind the Dodgers, Nationals and Diamondbacks in the National League?

That can change before the Cubs report to Arizona for spring training if President Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer remind everyone how smart they are over the winter. The onus falls on Epstein and Hoyer to take an aggressive approach to a team that won 92 games, the and a playoff series — and that tack goes way beyond the overrated overhauling of the coaching staff.

Don't get me wrong; manager Joe Maddon getting caught in a fib with the dismissal of scapegoats — pitching coaching Chris Bosio and hitting coach John Mallee — provided fascinating post-NLCS theater. The way Maddon rationalized why he misspoke reinforced the difficulty he has acknowledging any mistake, a disturbing pattern impossible to ignore after three seasons. Good thing that Maddon wins.

But neither Bosio nor Mallee were the reasons the Cubs either blew leads in the playoffs or stopped hitting with runners in scoring position. With due respect, baseball coaching staffs affect outcomes less than their equivalent in other sports, meaning the Cubs losing Bosio, Mallee or even bench coach Dave Martinez to the Nationals hurts less than, say, the Bears losing defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. The list of candidates to replace Martinez makes fascinating headlines, with everyone from David Ross to John Farrell to Ozzie Guillen inducing more web clicks than the possibility of front-runner Brandon Hyde. Truth is, you have to wonder how much impact a bench coach has on an experienced manager as accomplished as Maddon anyway.

The Cubs can survive the loss of valued staff members, and even the death of transparency, as long as Maddon continues to create a culture conducive to winning and the roster Epstein and Hoyer assemble produces. Over a 162-game regular season, it always comes down to players — which brings us back to the Cubs' biggest offseason priorities.

They start with starting pitching. With the likely departure of free-agent Jake Arrieta and retirement of John Lackey, the Cubs have 60 starts to replace. A natural direction to look for answers is St. Petersburg, Fla., where new pitching coach Jim Hickey spent 11 years with the Rays, where right-hander Alex Cobb also has played since 2011. Cobb, a free agent, went 35-23 from 2011-14 when Maddon managed the Rays before undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2015. His 12-10 record with a 3.66 earned-run average last season puts Cobb in the affordable category as a No. 5 starter.

Replacing Arrieta will cost significantly more, either in money or players. But the Cubs need to think big. To pry another pitcher away from the Rays — tops my wish list — might require the Cubs offering shortstop Addison Russell or Javier Baez, whomever the Rays preferred. Ideally, the Cubs will unload the onerous contract of light-hitting outfielder Jason Heyward that has $146 million left on it but, chances are, Russell, Baez and Ian Happ will draw more trade interest than Heyward. Slugger Kyle Schwarber gives the Cubs another asset to attract pitching, but his trade value plummeted during an all-or-nothing season.

Archer, 29, would be worth giving up a core position player because of his ability and his controllable contract, which has four years and $31 million remaining — a right-handed Jose Quintana.

Trade rumors involving Giants starter will persist and some fans will push Epstein to tilt at windmills in pursuit of , but neither option seems realistic. Cardinals starter Lance Lynn hitting the market also bears monitoring, as does the slim chances of Johnny Cueto or Masahiro Tanaka opting out of their contracts.

A league source said the Cubs planned to pursue Dodgers right-hander Brandon Morrow, if his arm hasn't fallen off after yeoman's work in the World Series. An all-out commitment to re-sign reliever Wade Davis needs to come first, a tricky equation given the well-documented recent risks of signing free-agent closers to large contracts, i.e. Mark Melancon.

The Cubs' most mysterious possibility originates in the Orient, where Shohei Otani, 23, the Japanese version of Babe Ruth, announced plans to play in the majors. Complex collective bargaining rules prevent the Cubs, because of past international expenditures, from offering a signing bonus of more than $300,000 for Otani — about $3.5 million less than other bidders. That will require Epstein to sell a potentially transformative player not driven by money on everything else great about playing in a world-class city for a Cubs team good enough to win it all again in 2018.

If the front office has a winning offseason, that is.

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Chicago Tribune Joe Maddon isn't afraid to take chances — detractors be damned By Dan McGrath

TV analyst Bob Brenly worked in Chicago long enough to understand the typical Cubs fan's psyche and how he or she might react to the end of 100-plus years of futility-fueled desperation.

"If you do win here," Brenly once suggested in the midst of yet another Cubs fade, "they'll name the lake after you."

Brenly's hyperbolic promise missed the mark. The climate-affecting, life-enhancing, freshwater mini-ocean to the east of us still goes by Lake Michigan and not Lake Maddon, even after Joe Maddon righted a century's worth of star-crossed baseball wrongs while managing the Cubs to the World Series championship last year.

It's probably just as well. Had the change been made, nouveau-riche Cubs fans would have demanded it be rescinded after Maddon's mystifying use of his pitching staff roiled them for the second straight postseason as the Cubs' repeat bid ended against the Dodgers in a five-game National League Championship Series.

When he let relief-pitcher newbie John Lackey face Justin Turner and surrender a walk-off in Game 2 of the NLCS, you would have thought an impostor imbued with Jim Essian's befuddlement and ' charm had taken over Maddon's body.

The Cubs skipper was vilified, more strenuously than he had been the previous year, when his alleged over-reliance on Aroldis Chapman almost cost the Cubs the World Series decider against the Indians. Or so the story went, with scant mention of an alternative to Chapman.

And why is he always tinkering with his lineup?

Wade Davis was the weapon of choice over Lackey this year, the same Davis who had exhausted himself throwing 44 pitches to nine hitters while getting seven outs to secure the NLDS clincher against the Nationals 72 hours earlier. Davis was still on fumes three days later and needed 48 pitches to get six outs and keep the Cubs alive in NLCS Game 4.

Evidently, Maddon had seen enough of Mike Montgomery and Carl Edwards Jr. to believe two innings of a wobbly Davis was better than one inning of either in a game the Cubs had to have.

But try telling that to Maddon's detractors. They know what they know, and not even a rather remarkable body of work will disabuse them of the notion Maddon is an idiot.

About that body of work: Maddon is the first Cubs manager to win a World Series since Hall of Famer , the Peerless Leader himself. He's the only Cubs manager to make three consecutive NLCS appearances. From the onset of divisional play in 1969 through the second of 's division titles in 2008, the Cubs won nine postseason games; in three seasons under Maddon, they've won 19. His regular-season winning percentage (.602) is the team's highest since the Peerless Leader left the dugout in 1912. The Cubs are 99 games over .500 (292-193) on Maddon's watch.

But Lackey over Davis? Come on. And why is he always tinkering with his lineup?

His track record with the Rays for developing talented young parts into a cohesive whole was what appealed to Cubs higher-ups when Maddon unexpectedly hit the market after the 2014 season. He was the perfect fit for a young team on the verge of a breakthrough, a savvy, confident, patient leader comfortable in his own skin and not afraid to try unconventional maneuvers, to some fans' occasional consternation. He truly believes that if a thoughtful, well-formed decision doesn't pan out, it wasn't necessarily the wrong decision.

Maddon's arrival accelerated the Cubs' rebuild by at least a year. They suddenly had a manager who had been where they wanted to go, with a similar cast of characters.

And he got them there, though there's no such thing as a smooth ride with the Cubs.

Why is he always tinkering with his lineup? Those being tinkered with don't seem to mind; players love playing for Maddon and always have, primarily because he seeks to emphasize what's important and lets the other stuff ride. Save for Chapman's grumbling about overuse on his way out the door, incidents of unrest within the Cubs' opulent clubhouse are unheard of.

Maddon revealed the source of his empathy for players during last year's division series against the Giants. He recalled being a little-used utility man during three minor-league seasons in the Angels organization, seeing the field only when the prospects needed a day off and never rising above Class A. The Angels released him before the 1979 season.

At 25, Maddon refused to accept that he was finished and signed with an independent California League team for $200 a month, spending more than that on gas traveling between his apartment in Salinas and the ballpark in Santa Clara. The team folded after one season, and there were no takers for a .267-hitting A-ball player with no pop — five home runs in four seasons. This time he knew he was finished.

But his clubhouse presence and his head for the game had impressed the Angels, who brought him back as an instructor, minor-league manager, major-league coach, etc. As he evolved into a baseball lifer, Maddon rode buses, ate fast-food meals, stayed in no-star motels and never lost sight of the fact that baseball is an insanely hard game, and even the greats have their struggles.

That knowledge informs his managerial style. The pseudo-hipster, too-cool-for-school persona can be a stretch — you're 63, Joe — but Maddon knows players and understands what makes them tick.

By the standards of his championship coach/manager contemporaries, Maddon is a victim of his own straight- talking accessibility — ask him a question, you get an answer, with no hint of defensiveness unless the topic broached, oddly, is social media.

Mike Ditka would respond to a query he didn't like with in-your-face snarl and a reference to the inquisitor's intelligence and/or manhood — a classic bully. Phil Jackson was all smug superiority; you pilgrims can't possibly grasp the intricacies of the triangle offense, but listen anyway and maybe you'll learn something. Joel Quenneville can get away with gruff, grudging "lower body … day to day" snippets because so few of us know hockey well enough to go much deeper. An Ozzie Guillen response was a wide-ranging soliloquy, sometimes related to the question, sometimes not.

Maddon speaks baseball. It's a language we all think we know, as well or better than he does, so carping and second-guessing come with the territory.

I suspect he's a little more fluent in it than we are … and that this run he has the Cubs on will last for a while.

But the Lake should remain Michigan … unless it's Lake David Ross.

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Chicago Tribune Raise a glass: The dawn of the Golden Era of Cubs baseball By Teddy Greenstein

It began with a covert coffee at Starbucks. It continued with a "shot and a beer" at . And for the last three Octobers, the drink of choice has been champagne.

Sure, you could measure the accomplishments of the Ricketts regime in a conventional way — victory totals that surged into triple digits. Or postseason appearances.

But isn't it more fun to do it by beverages?

The transformation of the organization can be felt in intangible ways too. Fans once flocked to Wrigley Field simply to chug Old Styles and get a tan. Now they come to witness history.

For the longest time, ticket holders walked past a parking lot on their way to the entrance at and Addison. Now they amble through a plaza that doubles as a venue for picnics, yoga and walk-up movies.

A discordant clubhouse with salsa music blaring from a boombox on one end and country twang at the other is now circular and harmonious — with every player viewed equally.

Corked bats have been supplanted by dancing relievers.

This is the Golden Era of Cubs baseball. Not since 1906-08 have the Cubs gone this far, reaching three consecutive National League Championship Series — and, of course, ending their infamous 107-year title drought in 2016.

And it all started, in many ways, with a fellow whose name you probably do not recall.

Noah Pinzur.

'Are you Theo Epstein?'

Tom Ricketts' first full season as Cubs chairmanlooked a lot like the Tribune Co.'s final season, 2009. The 2010 Cubs drew 3 million fans who received no postseason payoff. The 2011 team was horrendous, committing the most errors in baseball.

When Ricketts asked 20 baseball allies to recommend the best man to run his team, all but one replied: Theo Epstein. Boy Wonder had transformed his hometown Boston Red Sox and had a season left on his contract, but Ricketts courted him, saying he knew Epstein was right for the job after 10 minutes of conversation.

Epstein was attending to a caffeine fix on Oct. 8, 2011, when a Lincoln Park resident spotted him at a Starbucks. "Excuse me," the man asked. "Are you Theo Epstein?"

Epstein replied: "Who is Theo Epstein?"

That only solidified Pinzur's theory. Epstein confirmed the tale at his first Cubs news conference.

The Yale alum, named for the younger brother of artist Vincent Van Gogh, brought his own lingo to Wrigley Field. An organization that had been run by , a straight-talking former scout and college coach, now had an Ivy League alumnus who spoke of "parallel fronts" and "information-management systems."

Epstein's analytics background made him a quintessential rep of the "Moneyball" generation, but this leader also had a humorous streak more befitting Lucille Ball.

"I should probably have another press conference right now to resign because my popularity definitely has to be at an all-time high," Epstein joked on that October Tuesday. "It has peaked and it's only going to go downhill because, in baseball, when you make moves, if you do a great job, you're right 55 percent of the time. So the other 45 percent of the time, you're going to tick some people off."

A 55-45 split?

OK, there was the Edwin Jackson signing. The Justin Wilson trade flopped. And a superb glove and stirring rain- delay speech probably can't justify Jason Heyward's $184 million contract.

But the trades for Jake Arrieta, Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Hendricks, Addison Russell, Carl Edwards Jr. and Mike Montgomery qualify as outright thievery, and without the signings of Jon Lester, Dexter Fowler, Ben Zobrist and David Ross or the drafting of Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber and Albert Almora Jr., 2016 would have yielded salty tears rather than chilled champagne.

'Shot and a beer'

The Cubs have been all dressed up with places to go for as long as Joe Maddon's been the team's manager — and even before he arrived (the team went on a "Super Mario Bros."-themed trip in 2012).

Here are some of the more notable trips the team has taken in the last three seasons. (Paul Skrbina) The Chicago media's Nov. 3, 2014 introduction to Joe Maddon would have been memorable enough for lines such as, "Don't ever permit the pressure to exceed the pleasure."

But then Maddon outdid himself. Wearing a Cubs jersey over a colorful dress shirt, he grabbed the microphone at the Cubby Bear and asked: "Where's the bartender? Barkeep? I've got the drinks right now. One round's on me, please … that's a shot AND a beer. That's the Hazleton way. Shot and a beer."

Maddon was a baseball lifer who already had blown out 60 candles, but his new-school vibe was in direct contrast to predecessors such as , Lou Piniella, and . had done a serviceable job in 2014, coaxing 73 wins from a group that hit just .239, and had one year left on his contract.

But Epstein viewed Maddon as "the perfect guy at the perfect time," according to Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci, to boost morale and create a winning environment.

Maddon learned the importance of hard work from his father, Joe "The Plumber," of Hazleton, Pa.

The former high school quarterback and minor-league brought nine years of experience from Tampa, Fla., where he twice won Manager of the Year with the Rays. He emphasized both the quantifiable — shifting infielders based on spray charts — and the psychological — T-shirt slogans such as "Embrace the Target" and "Do Simple Better."

Maddon said yes to the Cubs after Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer romanced him and wife Jaye over a $10 bottle of wine (the most expensive they could find at a Publix) at an RV park near Pensacola, Fla. Maddon left a $2 million-a-year job with the Rays to sign for $25million over five years with the Cubs.

Ricketts began to get his money's worth at that first news conference. Maddon called Wrigley Field a "cathedral" and said his first experience there, as manager of the Rays, made him think of "Gladiator": "I'm walking out to the mound to get the ball and give it to the next guy. I'm walking back in and I'm looking up at the sky, and it's perfectly blue. Not kind of blue, perfectly blue. ... You have to understand something about your ballpark. It is magical."

Maddon would immediately become part of the community rather than seeking a fortress in the suburbs.

"I want to live somewhere downtown," he said. "I love the energy, the vibe. I'm not going to hide. I don't want a gated community. I don't want a country club. I want to be right in the middle of everything. I want to feel everything."

'Try not to suck'

Long before we witnessed Arrieta throw a no-hitter, Javy Baez blow a home-run bubble, Rizzo scream for respect, Lester lob one to first, Schwarber dent a wall, Bryant go into the souvenir baseball business, Hendricks work the corners, Aroldis Chapman hit 103 mph and Zobrist go "oppo" in Game 7, the Cubs were like most corporate-run franchises. They wanted to win ... but at a price.

Andy MacPhail began working for the Cubs while still in college, hawking tickets for their minor-league affiliate in Bradenton, Fla. The Tribune Company purchased the team in 1981 and lured him back in 1994, after MacPhail engineered the deals that brought two World Series titles to Minnesota.

Now president of the Phillies, MacPhail admires how Ricketts, Epstein & Co. ended a century of frustration and failure.

"The way they've invested has been flawless — everything on and off the field," MacPhail said in a telephone interview. "The ballpark itself. The green space. The offices. The baseball facilities, whether they be in Mesa or the Dominican Republic or the clubhouse in Wrigley Field. They had a game plan, they articulated the plan and they followed the plan. It worked."

After paying $845 million for the club, the Ricketts family has poured a reported $750 million into the ballpark and area development. The boutique Hotel Zachary will open next year, affording views of a charming, triangular- shaped park that hosts outdoor concerts, farmers markets and an ice skating rink in the winter.

Inside the walls of the 103-year-old building is beyond what MacPhail could have imagined.

During his tenure as team president from 1994-2006, the Cubs' domino-shaped clubhouse was cramped, with players and media members practically stepping over one another after games. The weight room would have merited a two-star Yelp review and there were dents in the walls as a result of pinch hitters taking cuts to stay loose.

"Our players suffered for a long time with that clubhouse," MacPhail said. "There were real-life limitations. We had been under the impression that it wasn't practical to expand below the road. They went ahead and made that investment, albeit as a cost. They created an outstanding space."

A publicly held company like Tribune, MacPhail believes, would not have been able to justify an investment in the hundreds of millions. The Ricketts family members answer only to themselves.

The Cubs lost big during Epstein's first three years, trading away assets and securing higher draft picks.

At an instructional-league fall camp in 2013, coaches began to laud good plays by shouting, "That's Cub!"

Epstein added it to the team manual, turning it into an acronym for C "the Courage to do the right thing," U "the Urgency to do the right thing right now" and B "the Belief that we can do it."

Among those catchphrases that have been flushed: "Lovable Losers" and "Cubby Occurrence," coined by Piniella to capture things such as Sammy Sosa injuring his back on a sneeze or a Kerry Wood hot-tub flub.

The ultimate Maddonism came to light during the 2016 Cubs Convention, when Baez was asked what advice his manager gave him after getting promoted to the big leagues.

Replied Baez: "Try not to suck."

They have not sucked since 2014.

This season ended in sober fashion, of course, after a blowout loss to the Dodgers.

But we're here to enjoy the back-to-back-to-back 90-plus-win seasons, the dominance/survival of the division series, the three consecutive trips to the NLCS. And the fact the Cubs are going nowhere. Their average position player, weighted by at-bats and games played, was 27.1 years of age.

And thanks to the Rickettses' long-term vision and you — the ticket-buying, TV-watching and jersey-purchasing fan — the Cubs promise to have upper-echelon resources for the long haul.

"Bizarro world," Maddon said.

He was talking about the Cubs' 9-8 series-clinching victory over the Nationals, which featured two errors, a passed ball, a catcher's interference and a run-scoring hit-by-pitch — all in the same inning.

Drenched in celebratory champagne, Maddon also might have created a slogan that befits the transformation of the Cubs.

BIZARRO WORLD.

Put that on a T-shirt.

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Chicago Tribune Cubs fans' love of Wrigley Field endures, even as ballpark keeps changing By Paul Sullivan

Back in the day, before the video boards or the LED boards or the lights or the bleachers, Wrigley Field was a ballpark that could expand and contract at a moment's notice.

A rope separated fans in the outfield from the field in the early days, allowing them to move up when Cubs hitters were at the plate while inching backward when the opposing team was up.

It didn't do much for the Cubs' championship dreams, which would come to fruition a century or so later, but it set the stage for a long and complicated relationship between a ballpark and its fans.

Cubs fans love Wrigley, that much is evident.

The world keeps changing from your youth, but Wrigley endures, even the nip-and-tuck version that currently exists. The staples make it Wrigley: the brick walls, the ivy, the old scoreboard and the marquee, the backdrops made to order for the Instagram culture.

Wrigley reminds you a little of the house you grew up in, even as it constantly evolves to conform to 21st-century norms. Even the troughs are beloved.

But Cubs fans also love winning, a fact no one was quite sure of back in the late 1980s and '90s, when they kept coming out to Wrigley in droves in spite of a bad product. and WGN-TV producer Arne Harris made Wrigley and the rooftops happening places, tourists made it a must-see destination and the rest is history.

The built-in love affair assured the Cubs that attendance would not significantly fall off if they decided to rebuild, giving President Theo Epstein time to implement his plan.

"You guys know how I feel about this ballpark," former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen once said. "But if you come to Chicago and you're a tourist and you don't come to Wrigley Field, your visit is incomplete."

Now, with a World Series title in 2016 and three straight National League Championship Series appearances in the Joe Maddon era, the Cubs can boast of putting a contending team on the field for the foreseeable future while the ballpark continues to change inside and out.

The meshing of the business and baseball plans was no coincidence.

When the original renovation deal was done — a proposed four-year, $545 million overhaul, including $200 million outside the park — it was slated to begin in 2014 and be finished by the start of 2017.

The Cubs expanded the plan with a video board, a right-field sign and five more advertising signs, and delays forced it to run at least two more offseasons after this.

Meanwhile the baseball plan — to develop young talent through drafts and dealing assets, then signing free agents when winning was feasible — turned the corner with the signing of Jon Lester after the 2014 season.

The winning began in '15, and it hasn't stopped since.

"That's not me," Lester said after the Cubs' NL Division Series win over the Nationals. "When I signed here, that gave guys the idea that the Cubs are serious. It made guys believe. I'm not taking any credit because the guys in this clubhouse now deserve all the credit in the world."

For decades, Wrigley was Wrigley, and small neighborhood business such as Yum Yum Donuts and Bernie's Tavern made money off the team during the season and tried to survive in the offseason.

The ballpark's vista had the same basic look from 1937, when the permanent bleachers and hand-operated center- field scoreboard were built and the ivy was planted, until 1970, when a 42-inch chain-link fence was erected at the top of the bleachers to discourage fans from jumping onto the field.

The basket survived the renovation, and when Nationals outfielder Michael Taylor hit a grand slam that barely made it into the overhanging jump preventer in Game 4 of the 2017 NLDS, teammate Bryce Harper said: "I'm glad for whoever invented the basket."

The ballpark's future forever changed when the Ricketts family bought the team in 2009 and turned traditions upside-down for the sake of added revenue streams.

It wasn't easy, and the renovation plan stalled in the summer of 2012, the first year of Epstein's rebuild, when an attack ad against President Barack Obama funded by family patriarch angered Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Epstein, in his first season as president, offered to help smooth things over.

"If they need help, yeah," he said. "It's not what I do on a day-to-day basis, but we sit in meetings and talk about it. Obviously it's of fundamental importance to the organization and affects some of our baseball plans. So any of us are willing to give our best effort to make it happen."

Chairman Tom Ricketts, who eventually decided to invest his family's money into the ballpark if the city would relax restrictions, including on ad signage, threatened to move during the stalemate.

"I'm not sure how anyone is going to stop the signs in the outfield, but if it comes to the point that we don't have the ability to do what we need to do in our outfield, then we're going to have to consider moving," Ricketts said in May 2013. "It's as simple as that."

Ads at Wrigley have always caused a tug-of-war between the traditionalists and modernists who believed more ad revenues would help the team win.

When a Doublemint gum crest was removed from the center-field scoreboard in 1937, it began a 46-year era in which no advertisements were allowed inside the ballpark.

Tribune Co. ownership changed that edict in 1983, selling Budweiser ads on the scoreboard. More advertising slowly crept in over the years, including the Under Armour ads on the outfield doors in 2007, just as the team was put up for sale.

When the Rickettses bought the Cubs a couple of years later, the team erected a giant Toyota sign at the back of the left-field wall, a harbinger of things to come. Wrigley became a jumble of ads by 2015, and the video board showed even more.

The ongoing renovation plan continues this winter with new premium clubs that will affect the dugouts, moving them farther away to accommodate club seating behind home plate, as many parks already have.

Looking at it from a financial standpoint, the Rickettses were smart to build more clubs and patio sections for well- off fans with money to spend. Still, the aesthetics may be jarring to viewers of Cubs games next year.

It's certain to create a background of entitled fans to TV viewers watching the center-field camera shot, as it does at Yankee Stadium and elsewhere. At Guaranteed Rate Field on the South Side, we have to see a man wearing a bright yellow M&M's jacket in his club seat every home game.

Outside, the new Park at Wrigley that opened in April was a limited success, with mostly families congregating there during games when the weather was nice. The Cubs would like to open it to the public during games but have met resistance from the city because of bar owners' complaints it would take away from their businesses.

Across from Wrigley on , a multistory development is rising that will be home to a bar, bowling alley, motorcycle dealership, apartments and a theater complex, among other things. The Cubs are not involved in that project, though Ricketts' Hickory Street Capital is investing $1 billion in renovations in and around the park.

Included is the seven-story building that houses the team offices, a "Cubbieplex" if you will, and a 173-room boutique hotel called Hotel Zachary, expected to open in time for next year's home opener on April 9 against the Pirates.

By the time all of the development is finished, Wrigley will be a rose surrounded by steel-and-metal sequoias.

But at least the troughs remain. A Cubs survey in 2013 suggested fans wanted them to stay.

"What we found is that our male fans have no problems with the communal nature of the troughs, cheek to cheek if you will," spokesman Julian Green said tongue-in-cheek. "It's part of enjoying the game."

Not since 1988 has the culture of Wrigley changed as much as the last three years. Of course, '88 was when the Cubs finally got passage of a city ordinance allowing them to install lights, ending a torturous back-and-forth between the team and the neighborhood. Like Ricketts would declare years later, Tribune Co. insisted increased revenues from night baseball were necessary for the team to compete.

With night games now a norm at Wrigley, the Cubs got permission from the city to host their first regular-season Friday night game this year. If Maddon has his way, the schedule would be in line with every other team and day games would be on weekends only.

"There's no reason it shouldn't always be a Friday night, period," Maddon said. "It's like it's a big deal right now, but it shouldn't be because Friday night baseball is appropriate. It should always be appropriate.

"There's plenty of time on the weekend to enjoy Saturdays and Sunday. I'm happy that it turned out this way, but it should always be this way."

As long as the Cubs are winning, change is inevitable. Demand for tickets will remain high and the cost of attending a game will increase as well. Many fans will be priced out, while others will enjoy the modern amenities.

When Wrigley 2.0 was still Wrigley, I used to sit in the center-field bleachers near former White Sox owner , who was in charge of the 1937 renovation. Veeck came out to most games back then and sat in the front row of the upper center-field bleachers with a baggie full of lamb chops and several brands of sun screen, limping up and down the ramps on his peg leg.

During the summer of 1984, when Veeck was 70 and I was a 25-year-old reporter on the Tribune's city desk, I asked him what made sitting in the Wrigley bleachers so special.

"It's one of those rare places where people of my generation can get along with young people," he replied.

That sentiment remains true.

Wrigley has changed quite a bit since your childhood, but it's still the place you call home.

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Chicago Tribune Ricketts family's ownership of Cubs is hardly business as usual By Phil Rosenthal

One need look no further than the construction and reconstruction still going on around Clark and Addison to see the Ricketts family is going after its own victories.

A World Series title is nice. It definitely helps.

Squeezing as much untapped revenue as is viable from the ballclub, Wrigley Field and neighboring community — not to mention spring training in Arizona — requires playing a different kind of hardball, however, and Tom Ricketts and his siblings have their gloves on.

If the Cubs have been aggressive in making over their baseball operations, so too have the Rickettses on the business end. Maybe more so.

The Rickettses are not the first family to own the Cubs. The Wrigleys, whose name remains on the ballpark they took over when it was still called Weeghman Park, controlled the franchise for 62 years.

Although they did not win a World Series, the Wrigleys did amass five National League pennants, including four in 10 seasons from 1929-1938. But the family that made its fortune in chewing gum saw the team and ballpark as the entirety of the business, and a side business at that.

The neighborhood eventually blossomed into Wrigleyville despite the fact the Wrigleys were passive about it.

The corporation then known as Tribune Co. — and which at the time still owned this newspaper — bought the Cubs from the Wrigleys in 1981 and were a little more aggressive, but nothing like the Rickettses to whom it sold the team, ballpark and related assets in 2009.

As the Rickettses acquire buildings, help build a hotel, carve out a park-like area for year-round business opportunities and assert control over the neighborhood around Wrigley, it's becoming Rickettsville in everything but name.

Winning on the field makes the team and everything around it more attractive and more valuable.

Despite its expense, the gut rehab of 103-year-old Wrigley Field also enhances the team's ability to make money, too, with nicer suites and the perks of club seating commanding bigger prices.

Some of that money goes back into the team. Some goes into debt financing because the Rickettses pressed on with their plans even when Mayor Rahm Emanuel rebuffed their requests for public money — the kind family patriarch Joe Ricketts opposes.

Then they have said they should get concessions on issues such as more night events at Wrigley Field because they didn't get public money.

They caught a break in Mesa, Ariz., which ponied up big money to fund a minor-league facility that will benefit the Ricketts team.

The Cubs don't need to turn a profit to benefit the Rickettses, who can be helped by having write-offs and, depending on the structure of the family trust established with the acquisition of the team, as a tax-efficient way to transfer assets between generations.

That the team grows in value enhances the benefits and the potential to throw off cash as well is a huge plus.

Tax planning played a role in the Wrigleys selling the ballclub and field they took control of in 1919, when William Wrigley Jr., a minority shareholder since 1915, upped his investment. Philip K. Wrigley took over for his late father in 1932, much as P.K.'s son, another William, would succeed him when P.K. died in 1977.

But the Wrigleys were hit with a big estate-tax bill, so they opted to sell the team. Nothing speaks to how casually they treated the Cubs as a business than the shareholder meeting to approve the sale to Tribune Co.

The Wrigleys owned 8,139 of the 10,000 shares of stock in the team. The rest was scattered among hundreds of investors who did so less for the investment than perks such as the promise of preferential treatment in buying tickets should the Cubs ever make it to the World Series.

The perks were going away with the sale, and some of the minority shareholders felt the $20.5 million price tag was way too low and argued a more open bidding process would yield a greater return.

Someone with three shares made a motion to postpone the vote. William Hagenah Jr., who in addition to being Cubs president was the husband of then-Chairman William Wrigley's sister, put the motion to a voice vote.

The delay was loudly approved, which got the attention of the Wrigleys and their attorneys. Eventually, they figured out a way to void the delay vote and get the deal done. But it took 31/2 hours for what should have been a rubber-stamp deal.

Even ' struggle to sell hot dogs on "Undercover Boss" wasn't that bad.

What's more, the minority shareholders were probably right. Sticking just to sale prices converted to 2017 dollars, Tribune Co. sold for more than 18 times what it had paid, although the sale price to the Rickettsesincluded a 25 percent stake in what is now NBC Sports Chicago and other assets the team acquired between 1981 and 2009.

Forbes' estimate of the franchiseearlier this year: $2.68 billion.

To be clear, no one is going to start a crowdsourcing campaign to help the Wrigleys. William Wrigley, who presided over the Cubs sale, inherited an $81 million-plus estate from his dad in '77. He was said to be worth more than $2.7 billion when he died in 1999. That's the equivalent of $4 billion today.

But the Ricketts family, so far, is leaving no opportunity unchewed.

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Cubs.com Inbox: Will Almora see everyday play in 2018? By Carrie Muskat

Albert Almora Jr., pitching and the "W" flag are among the topics in this week's Cubs Inbox.

What moves do you see the Cubs making in the outfield this offseason? Do you think Almora will have a bigger role next season? -- Edward G., Sunrise, Fla.

Giving Almora more playing time might be the biggest move the Cubs make regarding the outfield. Almora has proven to be dangerous against left-handed pitching, batting .342 this season. He has to show that he can produce consistently against right-handers. Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein pointed out that Almora spent time in the batting cages with a slider machine to train his eyes to recognize not so much how to hit it, but what lanes to expect the slider to come out of, especially with runners on or in two-strike counts.

"He put himself in position to get favorable counts and get fastballs or get mistake pitches he can drive," Epstein said. "Man, he made a lot of strides."

During their exit meeting, Epstein told Almora that he couldn't promise he'll be an everyday player next year. "[I did tell him] 'You'll have more responsibility, you'll have more of a role, and we'll see how much more that is and what you can grow into,'" Epstein said. "He's excited. He's moving closer to our Spring Training facility in Arizona to ready to get to work."

With Jon Jay most likely leaving via free agency, there should be opportunities for more playing time for Almora.

Could we see Kyle Schwarber, Ian Happ or even Javier Baez depart for a starting pitcher or a bullpen arm? If so, who could be the pitchers? Also, what is the likelihood the Cubs can resign both Wade Davis and Jake Arrieta? -- Chandler D., Ona, W.V.

The Cubs may have to part with one of their young players in a trade to acquire more pitching, and Epstein hinted that may be the case.

"Sooner or later, you reach a point where you have to strongly consider sacrificing some of that depth to address needs elsewhere on the club," Epstein said. "There's no deadline to do that, but I think we're entering the phase where we have to be open-minded to that if it makes the overall outlook of the team and the organization better." Epstein said there is still plenty of talent in the organization to help them acquire the pitching needed. As for who the pitchers will be, I don't know. They need at least two starters, and they have to find a closer unless Davis returns. Epstein said the Cubs would love to have both Davis and Arrieta back.

We saw a "passing of the baton" from Jon Lester to Kyle Hendricks, in a manner of speaking, with how the postseason rotation was set up. Do you think Kyle gets the nod as the Opening Day starter in 2018? How do you see Lester holding up on the back end of his contract? -- Evan J., Libertyville, Ill.

The postseason rotation was set up that way because Hendricks finished so strong in the second half (2.19 ERA in 13 starts) and because Lester had been bothered by fatigue in his left shoulder. I'll let manager Joe Maddon pick who starts the season opener on March 29 against the Marlins.

As for Lester and the next three years of his contract, the only red flag to me was the high number of hits and walks this season compared to 2016. He's been durable. This year was just the third time in his career he was put on the disabled list -- and the first since '11 (strained lat muscle). The other instance was in '06, when he was diagnosed with lymphoma.

I had never noticed the "L" flag until the Cubs losts to the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. What is the origin of the "L" and "W" flags? -- Matt M., Peoria, Ill.

Philip K. Wrigley put Bill Veeck in charge of creating a better fan experience at the ballpark, and one of Veeck's ideas was to install lights and a flag at the top of the scoreboard to let homeward-bound passengers on the elevated train know whether the Cubs had won or lost that day. According to baseball historian Ed Hartig, the earliest photos of that were in 1938 and the flag was dark blue with a white "W." Anyone heading home on the CTA's Red Line can see the flags on top of Wrigley Field's scoreboard. In August '82, Ernie Banks' No. 14 was retired, and a white flag with blue pinstripes with his name and number was raised on a foul pole. Hartig said that's when the Cubs switched to the current design of a white flag with a blue "W."

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