The staff at CSN sat down with the Chicago Cubs chairman, Tom Ricketts, and discussed a variety of topics from former GM Jim Hendry, the Cubs new internal manual called "The Cubs Way," and the recent changes to Wrigley Field:
Some highlights from the interview:
Theo Epstein was 1 of 25 interviews:
"We made the announcement [about firing Jim Hendry] on August 19th... which was a good time for us to give you about six weeks of time to do some homework. I focused on studying the different organizations to see which organizations were better at not only winning on the field, but developing players off the field. So we spent a lot of homework on that, but then we also spent about 20 or 25 just very discrete interviews with people in the game -- other general managers, other owners, agents, other people who might have input input into who is some of the better guys in baseball, and all roads led back to Theo."
Did Ricketts get a copy of the "Cubs Way" manual?
[Laughter.] I saw a draft. I haven't really read it that carefully. My bunting technique is not critical to the success of the organization at this point... When we talk about the "Cubs Way," it's not just a mission statement. It is actually a very thick document that outlines how we want players to execute in certain situations and how we want coaches to help players execute in those situations.
Ricketts also spoke about the new right field Bud Patio, which now features the first big screen video board, calling the seats in the area a "great view" and lauding the construction as "tasteful."
Lastly, the team owner mentioned the stadium's new WiFi system as well as the team's expectations:
"We're going to get better. We're going to get better this year; we're going to get better next year and the year after that. We're going to keep getting better until we're exactly where we need to be to win it all."
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