The Chicago Cubs Need to Chill Out
By Kyle Koster
U.S. Cellular Field will change its name to Guaranteed Rate Field, the Chicago White Sox announced on Wednesday.
Now, obviously, this is an unfortunate name for a stadium. Things like this happen in 2016 where money talks much louder than tradition. Many Sox fans never warmed up to the first corporate name and continued to call it Sox Park or Comiskey. These are the real heroes.
The Cubs decided to take a little jab at their crosstown rivals with this puny tweet.
It’s important to point out that the Cubs’ ballpark, Wrigley Field, is named after chewing gum. Or, if you want to be exact, a man who made millions off of chewing gum.
It’s also important to point out that the corner of Clark and Addison, once a monument to baseball’s past, has succumbed to the same sponsored outdoor mall fate as MLB’s other venues. The ivy is still on the brick walls but does little to obscure the corporate branding elsewhere.
And you know what? That’s fine. The problem is that the Cubs don’t understand that they aren’t any different than other franchises. That misguided superiority spawned this tweet.
Sure, it’s relatively inoffensive. But how many times must people who live in glasshouses be reminded not to throw stones?
The Cubs are trying to break the most historic curse in sports. They are the odds-on favorite to win the World Series. Optimism is even higher than it was in 2003 before Steve Bartman became involved.
As I’ve said all year, they need to just keep their head down and stay focused. I don’t particularly believe in curses but if I’m a Cubs fan, there’s no point in risking it. Don’t do anything to upset the applecart.
We could look back at this moment as when it all went wrong.
Look, if you haven’t won it all since 1908 and play in a stadium built on the back of gum, you have some exposures while sparring on Twitter. Just saying.