Cubs owner as frustrated as fans, but still believes in Hendry

When he spent $900 million to buy the Cubs, Tom Ricketts never imagined having to defend his love for the team or his desire to win.

He figured the investment was proof enough.

But when he took a recent trip to Africa, his dedication and nearly everything else came into question, especially when the team struggled - and Carlos Zambrano blew a gasket.

Cubs fans wanted to hear from the owner, but he was out of the country.

"Had I been here, we would have done nothing differently," Ricketts told the Daily Herald in an interview Saturday. "When that happened, (team president) Crane Kenney sent me an e-mail immediately and he called my sister Laura.

"It's wrong to jump to the conclusion that I was out of touch. We don't work that way.

"There wasn't a day we didn't have e-mail or phones. It was no different being there, except for the days we were out in the bush, and then still we were back at the hotel a few hours later and had phones and wireless and everything else."

Despite reports that the entire family was off the continent, one Cubs board member, Laura Ricketts, never left Chicago, staying on top of team matters and making sure communication to Africa was open.

"We all knew what was happening (with Zambrano) pretty quickly, and I think (GM) Jim Hendry took the right steps," Ricketts said. "I have confidence in our management, and we let them do the jobs they were hired to do.

"We're all disappointed with what's occurred this year, but I would have been no more disappointed had I been at Wrigley Field than I was in Tanzania."

The trip was indeed a vacation but planned with the dual purpose of visiting schools in Africa that the family has supported through a charity organization they originated called Opportunity Education.

"I'm a little surprised the trip caught people's attention to such an extent," Ricketts said. "It was a family trip that's been on the books for a couple years, since before we bought the Cubs, and it's not easy to accommodate everyone's schedule and make something like this happen.

"The first thing we did was visit the schools. Opportunity Education is not a publicity-seeking organization looking for money because it's funded entirely by our family, so we don't talk about it a lot, but it's important to us."

More than 1,000 schools in the impoverished countries of Africa and Asia would barely operate educationally without the Ricketts' funding.

"It all started when my dad and brother were climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro some years ago and found out from their guide that he was financing an entire school on his own because he had hard currency, and that money for teachers and coursework was scarce," Ricketts said. "My dad came up with a concept of how to help them.

"Part of this trip was having my kids see the first school we got involved with and what it's like for those children.

"I wanted to show them that things are different on the other side of the world. They've never seen anything like that, and I thought it was important for them. It's was certainly an eye-opening experience for everyone."

The family also spent time after that on safari viewing animals, but Ricketts is stunned that any Cubs fan would think he wasn't completely informed, or that he didn't care that the team was bad while he was gone.

"It's kind of crazy, and I don't know how you refute some things," Ricketts said. "We spent the entire day on Thursday at Wrigley Field and had several thousand season-ticket holders out there and I talked to every single one of them who wanted to talk to me.

"We're not hiding. We're not avoiding. It's been a rough season. We're not denying that. We're engaged and we care."

Despite the struggles of the last year-and-a-half, Ricketts doesn't sound like he has any intention of making a change at general manager, judging Hendry on what he has seen personally, not what may have taken place under Tribune Co. or Sam Zell.

"I have the highest level of confidence in Jim," Ricketts said. "We came in Day One and started from square one.

"From there, I thought the off-season was terrific for the organization. We did a nice job filling holes and making trades, and we came into this season very optimistic. For whatever reason, it hasn't come together like we thought it would.

"But this is serious for us. I care about winning, and we are committed to winning."

Had it not been for the performance of the Cubs' 3-4 hitters, they would likely be right in the middle of the Central Division race.

If that were the case, and with the way winning changes everything, Cubs fans' perception of the new owners might be different, and they likely wouldn't have known the family was even out of the country.

"Like every fan, we're aggravated," Ricketts said. "We don't feel good about this, and we're going to do what we have to do to put a winner on the field. We are as frustrated as anyone."

Fans associate caring and winning with payroll, but Ricketts didn't want to give away any secrets regarding the budget, or the prospect for buying out contracts.

"It's too early to talk about payroll for next year," Ricketts said. "On top of that, I'd rather not announce to our competitors, or the agents, what we intend to spend next year."

OK, but you can't blame a guy for trying.

"No, but that doesn't mean I can tell you," Ricketts said. "We have to be a little more careful than that."

In the meantime, Ricketts has spent the last week traveling through the Cubs' minor-league system, becoming more familiar with the talent and the staff, and Sunday he will fly to Los Angeles to meet with Hendry and then head to the All-Star Game in Anaheim.

We're guessing Cubs brass will discuss a plan for selling off marketable assets, like Ted Lilly, and begin preparing for 2011.

"We'll know more next week about the things we intend to do," Ricketts said. "In the meantime, we just want to win games. Winning makes everything better, and nobody cares about that more than I do."

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM.