If Cubs want to change clubhouse culture, they should look south

As baseball's trading deadline approaches, the balance between ability and conduct of potential acquisitions will be assessed and addressed.

So will the relative cultures of the White Sox and the Cubs.

Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts already has mentioned that his franchise can emulate the way the Red Sox generate revenue.

Right now the Cardinals are demonstrating how to remain competitive while incorporating youngsters with veterans, which the Cubs are in the process of attempting.

Also on the Ricketts family to-do list is finding a role model to show the Cubs how to change the club's culture.

Hello, White Sox.

Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, general manager Kenny Williams and field manager Ozzie Guillen have combined to establish a distinctive Sox philosophy that threads through the entire organization.

The three of them together are seven seasons into this and the Ricketts have only just begun.

The first thing the Cubs have to do is find the right field manager. General manager Jim Hendry thought he had an attitude adjuster when he hired Lou Piniella four seasons ago.

Well, maybe in 1990 or 2000 Piniella would have been the right guy to manage Carlos Zambrano, but not in 2010.

Hendry also thought he had an attitude adjuster when he hired Dusty Baker before the 2003 season.

Baker, however, became just another Cubs manager who mostly let Sammy Sosa be Sammy Sosa.

It would have been interesting to see how Williams and Guillen would fare at dealing with a Sosa or a Zambrano.

A good guess is the Sox would have either dumped those guys sooner than later, never acquired them in the first place or disciplined them into behaving.

So, what about that matter this week of weighing individual talent against club chemistry?

It was suggested to Paul Konerko that the Sox have a core of players - him, Mark Buehrle and A.J. Pierzynski, for example - that would enable the team to absorb a questionable character in a trade.

Konerko didn't dismiss the notion that players contribute to the Sox' culture but cited another source.

"You have to have players who believe in it, but it comes from the top," he said, "Players move (on), but you still have the same mood here year in and year out."

Konerko pointed to Williams, Guillen and the entire staff as most responsible.

MLB Network's "The Club" is an inside look at Sox management. One episode showed Williams' talking to the team at the beginning of spring training.

Williams emphasized that players would be held accountable and be gone if they didn't play and conduct themselves in the Sox' preferred image.

Walk into the Sox and Cubs clubhouses and the feel is different. There's a vibe on the South Side that right now is missing on the North Side.

"Our team, the staff, Ozzie - everybody falls in line underneath them," Konerko said.

The Cubs could use the brand of leadership the Sox have. It doesn't guarantee either team will win or lose, but it does help.

So while the Ricketts can look to Boston for a business model and St. Louis for a baseball model, they need look only eight miles south for a culture model.