Abbatacola: Ricketts Backing Hendry, Quade '100 Percent'
By Matt Abbatacola-
CHICAGO (CBS) On a wet and gloomy Wednesday afternoon, Tom Ricketts, the Chairman of the Chicago Cubs, met with the media. The impromptu gathering was held in the hallway behind the Wrigley Field press box next to the men's washroom.
The 12 minute question and answer session covered everything from goat t-shirts to Carlos Zambrano's comments on the team to the GM, Jim Hendry.
Listen: Tom Ricketts talks to reporters at Wrigley Field Wednesday
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The portion on Jim Hendry was the most interesting to me. Mr. Ricketts is well-spoken and easily expresses his thoughts in a clear and understandable fashion. He was asked if Jim Hendry and manager, Mike Quade, are safe for this season. He answered, "I have one-hundred percent confidence in Jim." He continued, "I think Mike's done a great job."
Two questions later, he was asked if he would revisit the GM situation based on the outcome of this season.
The chairman who is clear in thought and seems comfortable speaking in front of the media, stumbled in his response, "that was a pretty uh ... trying to follow how the different question worked in there."
In other words, Tom, if your team continues to play as poorly as it is now and you have a 65 win season, will you fire the GM?
"No, the um, you know, the fact is that like I said I have one-hundred percent confidence in Jim. Um, we're just going forward right now and and uh you know we'll see what the off-season looks like then. But um, yeah we we have ah you know, I'm pretty happy with, I mean we're comfortable with ah, you know ah, Jim. I'm confident in his ability to keep us moving forward."
After that answer, if I were Jim Hendry, I'd make sure that my resume was updated.
Here are some other highlights from Tom Ricketts :
"Everyone in the organization is frustrated."
"It's been a disappointing season so far."
"We've got about 94 games left. Everyone's still working hard and I think we'll turn it around."
On Carlos Zambrano's comments in St. Louis after Carlos Marmol blew the save and the Cubs lost in 10 innings -
"Calling out an individual teammate is probably not the way to handle such things."
On the team being embarrassing - "To be honest, I didn't think it (Zambrano's assessment) was that bad."
On the team's ability to spend money in free agency -
"We do have a lot of money coming off the books."
"Whether or not that goes back into a large free agent contract will be Jim's decision."
"Nothing in the capital structure, in the balance sheet, or any of the debt will in any way limit our ability to put a good team on the field."
We will see how the Rickett's ownership of the team will unfold and what plan he has in place for the future success of his ballclub. As it stands right now, the future is in Jim's hands and his boss doesn't seem too confident despite being "one-hundred percent confident".
