Some advice for Cubs' new owner

The question being asked around Wrigley Field the past couple days was this: What's the first thing a new Cubs owner should do?

It might be moot considering the sale of the Cubs becomes more confusing and remote by the minute.

Monday, Tribune Company reportedly was ready to submit a proposal from the Ricketts family to both bankruptcy court and Major League Baseball. Tuesday a group led by Marc Utay reportedly also still was in the running. Later in the day it was hard to tell what was going on.

By today it's expected that the Trib also will come to sale agreements with Michael Jackson's estate, a consortium of recent Little Lotto winners and the Ronnie Woo-Woo Foundation.

Current odds are a 50-50 that Ricketts will get the Cubs, 50-50 that Utay will and a 50-50-50 that the Cubs won't be sold before they win a World Series.

In other words it adds up to not in your lifetime.

Let's play the game anyway and ponder what a new Cubs owner should do immediately after being handed the keys to the Wrigley Field restrooms.

"Do something about Mike Fontenot's hair," Cubs shortstop Ryan Theriot said of his teammate.

Funny, sure, but let's get serious.

What a mythical new owner should do is name a team president to oversee all departments, including and especially baseball operations.

Former president John McDonough, a marketing guy, wasn't the answer. Current club chairman Crane Kenney, whatever it is that he does, isn't the answer. The new owner, whomever he'll be, won't know baseball's landscape well enough to be the answer.

The Cubs need a baseball man as club president, somebody who knows the true value of a player that general manager Jim Hendry pursues in the prevailing market.

The club president should have a grasp of where the economy is going and whether there's an option out there that dollar for dollar makes more sense.

Does it absolutely take a no-trade clause to close the deal with a certain player? Is there as much competition for him as his agent insists? Could he be had a month from now for less money and fewer years? Should the contract be backloaded, frontloaded or not loaded at all? Will enough money be left to make a deal at the trade deadline?

Listen, I believe in Hendry but every general manager could use help. Especially one with the daunting task of winning the Cubs' first championship in more than a century.

Hendry's strength is talent evaluation. It isn't money management, though he likely would disagree.

Anyway, club chairman/managing partner Jerry Reinsdorf serves as financial conscience for the White Sox.

Do you think Reinsdorf would have permitted Kenny Williams to sign free-agent Alfonso Soriano to an eight-year contract?

No, probably not. Reinsdorf would have tried to concoct a contract that gave the Sox an out after a couple years ... or told Williams to tell Soriano thanks but no thanks.

Who could fill the role of Cubs president? I don't know but somebody has to qualify.

If not, give the position to Ronnie Woo-Woo in the event he doesn't become owner.

mimrem@dailyherald.com