The Daily Herald’s Barry Rozner raises the spectre of Wrigley Field being named someting else. Though he doesn’t seem troubled by the possibility.
The time has come for the Cubs to sell the stadium naming rights and spend that money on a starting rotation ” or to keep their first baseman.
They can call it Bazooka Joe™s Bubble Gum Factory for all we care, as long as the money goes toward a few healthy arms.
It™s not 1977 anymore, the Cubs are no longer cute and lovable, and the Wrigley family ” despised the last 10 years it owned the team ” is worth billions and getting free advertising because the Cubs have feared a fan backlash.
Perhaps they™re prepared in the next year or three to go that way after dipping their toes in the water by renaming the bleachers. Cubs officials say they have no plans to do it, but they know the critics will bury them whether they do it or not, whether it™s sooner or later, so it might as well be sooner.
As Dowdle said more than a decade ago, you can live with the inevitable changes, or live with the team moving to Schaumburg.
As choices go, handling a few minor alterations, including a name change, to stay in a beautiful old park doesn™t seem like a difficult choice at all.
Given the Tribune Company’s non-profit status and the Cubs’ inability to fill the ballpark nearly every game, it’s hard to argue with Rozner’s logic. And imagine all of the medical advancements that would be made available to Mark Prior and Kerry Wood the minute the Cubs cash the check for Wrigley’s naming rights?