Any day now — and I do mean any day now — Theo Epstein is expected to be named as the President of Baseball Operations of the Chicago Cubs, bringing with him Jed Hoyer to be the team’s brand new General Manager.
As you can see above though, today was not that day as initially expected. The Cubs welcomed Toyota employees, their friends and family to the Friendly Confines today but they did not welcome Theo Epstein into the organizational fold. That doesn’t mean the savior-to-be wasn’t lurking somewhere around Wrigley Field. Much like I did last Sunday, I walked to Wrigley Field to see if I could find any sign of the savior and his new General Manager. After the jump, the results of my investigation.
My first stop, after the marquee of course, was the media/employee parking lot located by the team’s administrative offices. Surely if Theo Epstein was in town to sign a contract with the Cubs, there would be several cars with Massachusetts license plates in the general vicinity. Alas, while there were a number of states represented, Massachusetts sadly was not. For as much as I enjoy hanging out in parking lots, this was not the point of my mission. No, my self-designated assignment was to find the one, the only Theo Epstein. Onward.
As I continued along around the perimetter of the ballpark, there was a break in the case. The left field gate at Seminary and Sheffield was left open! Not wanting to get arrested for trespassing, I peered inside, hoping to catch a glimpse of Tom Ricketts and his siblings giving Epstein and Hoyer a tour of their new digs. Alas, as you can see, the concourse is completely empty, the hallowed halls that are home to thousands of raucous baseball fans from April to September resoundingly silent. Not even an empty tube of hair gel to serve as a sign that Epstein and his marvelous head of hair were once in the general vicinity. My quest must continue.
The Bud Light Bleachers are one of the most popular places in the entire ballpark. Surely if Theo Epstein was going to be at the ballpark, he’d like to see where the fabled Bleacher Bums originated. Alas, while that cool statue of Harry Caray that you see above was outside, the man reported to be the Cubs new team president was not. He couldn’t possibly be hiding in the upper deck again, could he?
No. Theo Epstein was not in the upper deck hiding from me or any other journalist. The seats sat empty, much as they did for most of September, unfilled by the new boss or any other human being. But the park sure did look nice tonight. So, having explored every nook and cranny of Wrigley Field that I legally could, there was only one place left to explore: Starbucks. Why Starbucks? That was reportedly where Cubs fan Noah Pinzur spotted and conversed with Epstein earlier this month. And despite the fact that it was around 2 o’clock on a Friday afternoon, it’s entirely possible that after flying in from Boston, Epstein might need a dose of caffeine to get through his first day as President of the Cubs.
So I swung by the purveyor of pumpkin spice lattes hoping to be the first reporter to score an interview with Cubs President Theo Epstein. Fate was not smiling down upon me though. While there was a nice cross section of hipsters and college students inside the coffeehouse, there was no sign of the most popular man in all of Chicago.
And thus, my quest to find the most sought after man in all of Chicago came to an end. The Cubs and Red Sox still haven’t agreed to the appropriate compensation for Epstein, and it’s unlikely a deal will be announced until after the World Series. Before all is said and done, Commissioner Bud Selig may have to step in to help speed negotiations between the two teams along before all is said and done. Until then, Cub Nation waits in earnest for the man who they believe will one day lead them to the Promised Land, and my daily walks through the neighborhood will always have an added bit of suspense to them.
