I've said this over the years publicly - this is not a lucrative business. My goal every year is to break even with the White Sox.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
As a citizen of the great city of Chicago, I find it impossible to root against the White Sox. The White Sox organization has been much more consistent, in my lifetime at least, at putting a winning ballclub on the field.
The Red Sox are a curious thing because so much here is media driven. You can't go fire half your scouts here because they are all friends with the local reporters. Your life is going to hell in the papers.
Baseball has all the money.
It's bad for baseball to have owners who can benefit another business by losing money in baseball.
When I first came into baseball, people didn't want to hear that a team was a business. But it is. And the better the business is run, the healthier the team on the field is going to be.
In baseball, nothing surprises me. I understand this is a business.
In my opinion, baseball is as big a business as anything there is. It has to be a business, the way it is conducted.
This is what you work for, putting all the other crap that you hear aside. Just being able to participate in a World Series is pretty much everything. But you do want to win!
All ballplayers want to wind up their careers with the Cubs, Giants or Yankees. They just can't help it.
My pat line about the Cubs and payroll is that the amount of merchandise the Cubs would sell off a world series championship would more than cover for a big payroll.