Tom Ricketts needs Crane Kenney around like he needs a serious case of herpes.
I was done with the myth of Crane Kenney the second I heard he found a Greek priest dumb enough to come to sprinkle holy water in the Cubs dugout before the ’08 playoffs. It’s asinine enough that fans have been forced to believe in curses when it comes to pro sports’ biggest travesty, but members of the organization too? Sweet. Yeah, because why wouldn’t you want to let players see that you believe in all of that garbage right before a playoff game?
I could give two shits about the Captain Morgan Club, or the new $99 million spring training facility that Kenney is apparently in charge of. It does nothing for me that he has Tom Ricketts’ trust. He needs to be fired just like Jim Hendry was, because the shadow he casts will kill Ricketts’ dream of landing one of the big name GM’s he so desires.
If, and when, Brian Cashman, Andrew Friedman, Theo Epstein & whoever else gets the call from Ricketts, they will, undoubtedly, call Hendry to do some background work on what life is like with the Clown running around acting like a baseball savant. Hendry will, of course, be honest and tell them that he had only one enemy in the entire Cubs organization, and it’s the guy who has his own personalized Cubs uniform in his office.
That alone will temper whatever interest the big 3 had in the Cubs gig. Why would Cashman or Epstein leave a plush job where they are to come here and deal with a meddler who thinks he has what it takes to build a successful baseball organization?
They wouldn’t, and it’s why Ricketts can’t fuck around and keep his business hard ass employed past this season. Kenney’s presence will become even more useless if Cashman signed on because he would likely want to bring in his own people. And then what– would Ricketts demand that he must co-exist with the team’s money guy? Give me a break. Tell me, why would a successful business man like Ricketts need Kenney around anyway? Are we supposed to believe that Ricketts can’t handle the business side of things on his own or with help from his siblings? I’m not buying it.
The only way Epstein would consider leaving Boston (where he has deep ties to John Henry, Larry Lucchino & the rest of the Red Sox organization) would be if you threw the President’s title in addition to the GM position. And even that could be wishful thinking. Is Tommy Boy willing to offend Epstein from the jump just to keep Clown Fool around? I so desperately want to believe that Ricketts isn’t that stupid. However, the longer Kenney is still receiving paychecks, the less likely one of the big name executives will call Wrigley home.
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