Ricketts clan ready to reach out

Tom Ricketts and his siblings were at it bright and early Monday.

"Six in the morning," Ricketts said before the new owner of the Cubs watched his team take the field against the Milwaukee Brewers. "Hard-working crew around here."

Ricketts made the trip to Atlanta for last Monday's season opener, but this was the day he was anticipating for the last three years as the sale from the Tribune Co. dragged on.

But really, Ricketts had thought of this day for a whole lot longer.

"It's funny," he said. "I don't remember dreaming of it specifically, but I came across my essay for business school, and I actually had my dream job being the owner of the Chicago Cubs. That's when I was living in the Sports Corner bar across the street (from the ballpark). That was 1989 or something like that."

Ricketts, his brothers Todd and Pete and his sister, Laura, made the rounds Monday morning, appearing on TV and radio shows and eventually greeting fans as they came into the ballpark.

Tom Ricketts seemed to be comfortably in his element on an Opening Day that wasn't played in parka weather.

"Isn't this great?" he said "We have sun. Temperatures are mild. It's just going to be a terrific day. It's definitely the day everyone was pointing to the whole time. Obviously there were times in the process we weren't sure this day would ever get here. We're all here. We're all excited. We've got a lot of family in town, a lot of friends in town. It's going to be wonderful."

For years, the Cubs were owned by a corporation that really had no face to it. Before that, the Wrigley family wasn't exactly fan-friendly.

Even though owners might hear things they might not want to hear from the fans, especially when the team isn't playing well, Ricketts seems to relish mingling with the masses.

"I hope we get a lot of positive feedback," he said. "One of the things that you'll see from us this year is that we're going to be taking a lot of feedback. We'll have ambassadors in the park talking to people. We have different ways people can reach out to us. We want to keep listening. Hopefully, we'll get a lot of positive feedback on some of the things people see today, and hopefully we'll get some more ideas from people as they get back to us over the course of the season, and next year, we'll incorporate those changes."

All four Ricketts siblings took part in the time-honored tradition of singing "Take Me out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch.

On the field, the Cubs beat Milwaukee Brewers 9-5. That was after a road trip on which the team went 2-4 and lost three heartbreaking games.

"I think that it's a long season, and you can't overreact to any one game or any one road trip," Ricketts said. "I think the biggest difference is that now that we kind of know some of the players personally, it's harder when you see them struggle or have something go wrong, you just know how hard they're trying, and you know badly they want to win. It just adds kind of a personal twist on something like that."

Cubs players and manager Lou Piniella seemed appreciative of what the family has brought to the team, but Piniella couldn't resist a little fun.

"I don't think they got any basehits," Piniella joked. "But it's nice and positive to see ownership here supporting the team and rooting for the team and being supportive like they are. It's good to see."