Three resolutions to get Cubs started in the right direction

The new year is here, and it's only six weeks until pitchers and catchers report for spring training, so therefore be it resolved:

• That the Cubs honor John McDonough at their annual fan convention two weeks from today.

The idea first came from a faithful reader, and it's a good one. McDonough created the Cubs convention, and it has been a runaway success ever since. As the late Rod Beck said to me during his first convention after coming over from the Giants in 1998, "Heck, we didn't get this many people for a game at Candlestick on some nights."

Putting thousands of people into a hotel in the middle of winter to talk Cubs baseball is a big accomplishment, and it's probably McDonough's lasting legacy in a quarter-century with the Cubs.

McDonough left late last year to take over as president of the Blackhawks, with whom he's already working his magic.

So on the first night of the Cubs convention, the Cubs can introduce McDonough to the crazies in the Hilton ballroom and let him throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

After Wayne Messmer sings the national anthem, he can turn the microphone over to McDonough, who can lead the crowd in singing, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." The seventh-inning stretch song took on a life of its own after the dearth of Harry Caray with the "guest conductor" program, another McDonough baby.

The Cubs owe it to John to allow him to take a final bow in front of Cubdom.

• That new Tribune Co. boss Sam Zell sells the Cubs soon. We've heard about the sale of the Cubs since last Opening Day, and with the Tribune Co. sale finalized, it's time to move once and for all on spinning off the Cubs.

Yes, it's a complex process, but the sooner the deal is done, the better.

We even have a buyer: Chicago Wolves owner Don Levin.

The Wolves have been the hottest thing on ice in Chicago since their inception in 1994, and it's all because of Levin's leadership.

I had the pleasure of covering the Wolves in the late 1990s, and I saw that Levin and his crew ran a major-league operation even if the hockey was "minor" league.

What's more, the Wolves have been winners, both in the International Hockey League and now in the American Hockey League. The IHL was filled with veteran players, and the Wolves won. The AHL is a developmental league, and the Wolves are winning. Give credit to Levin for hiring Kevin Cheveldayoff as general manager and John Anderson as coach in 1997 and letting those skilled hockey people do their jobs.

Levin treats his players, the media and, most important, the fans, with respect and care. There's no reason to believe he wouldn't do so with the Cubs.

• That the Cubs make one more deal to finish the off-season and get ready for Arizona. After the winter meetings, it looked like the Cubs might get something done with the Baltimore Orioles, who are looking to move second baseman Brian Roberts and left-handed pitcher Erik Bedard.

Since then, nothing has happened, and the holidays put things on hold. Orioles baseball boss Andy MacPhail is one of the more "deliberate" executives around, to put it nicely. It's easy to picture MacPhail in line at the grocery store mulling the choice between paper and plastic. So it's time for Cubs GM Jim Hendry to rouse MacPhail and try to pry Roberts loose.

The Cubs weren't in the sweepstakes for Bedard in December, but Hendry might as well ask about him, too, once he gets MacPhail on the phone.

Couldn't hurt.

Happy new year.