The chicago cubs used to resemble a ball club. They used to be just another baseball team, albeit a very popular one. They used to be a lot of good things, but all that my friends, is long gone.

Throughout my tenure as a cubs fan, the cubs have gone from a team to another asset to the Chicago Tribune, and if peope think that the Tribune-Cubs partnership is coming to an end, there are better edds on a cubs world series coming this season. In any normal year, the tribune would never sell the cubs, for they are a business and as long as the cubs bring in the insane amount of money that they do, it is in the tribune's best interest to keep the Chicago Cubs.

But this year, 2006, is not a normal year for the tribune. Their television station, WGN, is struggling horribly against other stations like NBC, ABC, and FOX. It has gotten so bad, in fact, that WGN is undergoing a makeoverand is now called the CW, which i think represents a merging between WGN and another struggling station in Chicago WCIU. The tribune now is desperate to hold on to the cubs and milk them for everything they are worth, and since when they are losing they still draw 30,000 plus, there is no reason to increase payroll or put any extra money into the cubs, because that would be bad business. Why put more money into a cog like the cubs, if the return will be the same? Cubs fans are more reliable than a mailman. They will show up in any weather, no matter houw bad the team is, and for the tribune, that is music to their ears.

That said, the tribune can be defeated. But it will take an enormous effort from the city of chicago. We must stop showing up to games, stop buying their merchandise, stop eating their $4 hot dogs and $6 beers. We must cut off all money supply to the tribune. But this will never happen. If the people attending wrigley were only cubs fons then it would happen. But every game there are tourists and people just looking to get drunk and boo thye other team, or people that moved from other cities to chicago that come to wrigley when their team comes to town. Our only way out is for a Steinbrenner type figure to overpay for the cubs so much that it will be worth it for the tribune will sell, and that doesnt look remotely close to happening.

And so to me, the sad realization that the cubs will be bad for a long timehas finally hit, and for now i can only say, "Theres always next year." (whether i actually have hope in next years squad is irrelivent.)