Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune has another in what will certainly be a looooong line of stories trying to put Theo Epstein in Chicago as the Cubs next GM. We saw some of those a couple of weeks ago, and Epstein made it clear that he’s not going to fan those flames while the Red Sox are still playing baseball game. This one, however, is more from the Cubs’ perspective:
You can’t fault Ricketts for wanting to see if he could land Epstein. While you have to be wary of monomania in these sorts of things and you can’t fixate on one candidate, it seems pretty shrewd to me to wait Epstein out and see if he won’t bite. And according to Rogers, “some close to Epstein” think he’s interested.
Around baseball, there’s a belief Ricketts might hit a home run, possibly even persuading Epstein to leave the Red Sox after nine seasons and two World Series parades. It’s easy to see the downside with an organization that last won it all in 1908, but the perception outside Chicago is different.
“People in baseball talk about it like it’s the Holy Grail right now,’’ one major league executive said. “You have a chance to break a curse that’s longer than the one the Red Sox ended. You can distinguish yourself in ways that aren’t available elsewhere.”
You can’t fault Ricketts for wanting to see if he could land Epstein. While you have to be wary of monomania in these sorts of things and you can’t fixate on one candidate, it seems pretty shrewd to me to wait Epstein out and see if he won’t bite. And according to Rogers, “some close to Epstein” think he’s interested.
