Ricketts didn't get his money by tossing it around
Ricketts family members must feel like they're walking down the streets of Chicago and homeless persons are soliciting money from them every few steps.
The latest request for a handout came in the form of a Twin Cities columnist's list of 10 moves the Twins should make.
No. 2: "Get out from under (Joe) Nathan's large contract (two years, $22.5 million) by trading him. The Cubs might take him."
Why wouldn't they think that in Minnesota? The sentiment there, here and elsewhere seems to be that the Ricketts fortune will post bail for everyone.
It's as if frontman Tom Ricketts is supposed to be an ATM dispensing cash to anybody in need of a quick buck.
That's a bit dreamy since just for starters the Ricketts will surrender $845 million when they close on the Cubs purchase in a few weeks.
Not that there isn't much more where that came from, but most folks who have a large net worth aren't eager to part with it.
Yet that hasn't stopped others from expecting Tom Ricketts to go on a shopping spree.
Like, eat that remaining $20 million on Milton Bradley's contract. - Pay off Lou Piniella and give Tony La Russa millions to replace him. - Hire a club president at the going big-market salary. - Buy free-agent leadoff man Chone Figgins for $40 million over four years. - Trade prospects for the rights to closer Joe Nathan's costly contract. -
Oh, by the way, young Mr. Ricketts, while you're at it contribute hundreds of millions more dollars to essentially build a new Wrigley Field.
You know what they say about how to become a millionaire: have a billion dollars and buy the Cubs.
Maybe that's the Ricketts' financial plan after buying into major-league baseball. Maybe they intend to make the Cubs the family's charity of choice.
Probably improbable, don't you think? Isn't it more likely that Tom Ricketts will be reluctant to risk dipping his toe into a Great Lake of red ink?
These days are so different from the last time the Cubs and the White Sox were sold.
Back in the early 1980s, Jerry Reinsdorf's group started out owning the Sox by spending money to make money, acquiring players such as Carlton Fisk and Greg Luzinski.
Soon after, the Tribune Company hired Dallas Green to generally manage the Cubs and he dispensed dollars to players as if money grew on ivy.
Each club won a division title but each ownership eventually realized the sport of baseball had to be operated as the business of baseball.
Teams don't so much spend money to make money anymore; they make money to spend money. Like, how many times have we heard general manager Kenny Williams say that he will pay to upgrade the Sox if more fans pay to attend games?
Reinsdorf once insisted that finances never would force the Sox to lose a player they want to keep. He hasn't repeated that for about a quarter-century.
The economics of baseball have changed so dramatically that it's folly to expect the Ricketts family to arrive at Wrigley Field in a generous mood.
If they're financially responsible, their policy at least for a while figures to be charity begins at home.
mimrem@dailyherald.com