The Last Straw: Cubs Leaving WGN

Corny as he was, Jack Brickhouse
endeared the Cubs to us

Word today is that the megabucks Ricketts family has decided to sever the Cubs' 65 year relationship with WGN.

It's their business and they certainly have a right to squeeze as much cash out of it as possible, but for me it's the last straw.

I have to admit that I'm one of those fossils who lamented the introduction of lights to the venerable old ball park on Clark and Addison. But I was resilient enough to adapt to that.

But the skyrocketing cost of bleacher admission from -- in my memory -- $3.50 to $25.00+ -- the smoking ban in the ballpark -- the skyrocketing cost of beer and other amenities, the injection of garish commercial signage into the Friendly Confines and the steady procession of eminently unpleasant, totally unlovable and utterly forgettable rent-a-player hired hands on the field have combined to persuade me to call it quits.

This really is no small matter coming from one who for many years was glued to Channel 9's televised play by play coverage, WGN radio's audio reportage and who hung on the Cubs' every up and down -- which, of course with the Cubs were mostly downs.

It was Jack Brickhouse on TV with his corny HEY, HEYs and Lou Boudreau on the radio with his veritable hefty bag full of verbal baseball arcana that originally drew me to the Cubs.

And the likes of Steve Stone, Harry Caray and yes -- even the often unlistenable Ron Santo kept me in the fold.

But the steady drip, drip Chinese water torture erosion of tradition really culminates in the jettisoning of the WGN tie.

Last summer I had my first entirely Cubs-free summer since college days, when distance and various hedonistic pursuits overcame Cubs affection.

Didn't listen to or watch a single Cubs game. Stopped by Wrigley Field only once and that was to join a few guys for a smoke outside the bleacher entrance (the new unofficial Wrigley smoking area.)

Now, with the Ricketts' cold calculation to end free WGN broadcasts, Cubs-free summers will be a permanent condition with me.

Just think of the beach side reading I'll get done.

Cubs Tickets Priciest in MLB

It's opening day at Wrigley Field. And despite the Cubs 101 year World Series Championship drought, it will now cost you more to see this year's motley assemblage in blue perform than any other team in major league baseball.

According to the Wilmette-based Team Marketing Report, the Cubs have now overtaken the Boston Red Sox with an average ticket price of $52.56. That means "a day of fun at the old ball park" as Jack Brickhouse used to blurt, will now cost a family of four $329.74, when you add in parking and all of the other associated costs.

The Cubs were second in the majors with a 10.1% price increase for 2010.

Thank you, Ricketts family.

But as the Cubs limp into Wrigley today with a 2-3 record, hitters that can't hit in the clutch and a bullpen creakier than the boards on the deck of the Mayflower, they will be sold out this afternoon.

You see, the Cubs now are chic.

But it wasn't always that way.

Back in the mid-60s, the old owner, P.K Wrigley, couldn't give away Cubs tickets.

On a bone-chilling opening day in '67 or '68, one of my avid Cub fan childhood friends ditched grammar school to attend along with about 1,014 other stalwarts (or lunatics depending on your perspective.)

P.K. was so grateful that he gave them each a certificate for free admission to another game. I wonder what the 2nd place prize winners got -- 2 tickets?

Back in 1964, the year the Cubs traded away future Hall of Famer Lou Brock for a sore-armed pitcher, Ernie Broglio, to save money ladies used to get in for free every Wednesday.

I'm sure that P.K.'s marketing geniuses thought this would turn Wrigley Field into a chick magnet. In reality it gave suburban mothers an excuse to pack the station wagon with the neighborhood kids and bring them to a game. The moms would get in for free and the kids would set them back a quarter a piece.

My mom did that with me and my neighborhood baseball card trading pals on several occasions.

According to an old scorecard that I have (I was lucky enough to get it autographed by future Hall of Famer, Juan Marichal) that year an Oscar Mayer hot dog cost 30 cents and a Budweiser bottle 40 cents.

Bleacher admission was 50 cents.

That was, of course, before the great liberal Democrat, Lyndon Baines Johnson, inflated the US currency to pay for his wildly successful wars: his war in Vietnam and domestic war on poverty.

In 1981, Cubs Manager, Lee Elia went into his famous on-tape, career ending, obscenity-laden rant when he said that most of the city of Chicago worked for a living and the rest came out to Wrigley to boo his ballclub.

Despite a nation-leading 11.9% unemployment rate you won't see the unemployed represented at Wrigley today.

It's just too bloody expensive.