Emma: Cubs' Cutting-Edge New Player Amenities Reward Patience
By Chris Emma--
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Long before the Cubs rose to their stature as a World Series favorite, there were various visions as to how they could get there.
The Cubs found the personnel to build a winner, to grow a business and to restore Wrigley Field. Through the process, Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts has offered consistent words through the development of each project: Do it right.
"Those were just visions, and it's important to have visions," Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said. "It's important to have visions. But it's another thing to execute."
Ever since Ricketts took over as Cubs chairman in 2009, he has sought the right people and offered his trust and resources. Patience has been a virtue, with undertakings on many fronts taking years of work. Ricketts was willing to invest whatever it took.
When first baseman Anthony Rizzo arrived in Chicago in Epstein's first big move -- via a trade with San Diego -- he was asked to share in that patience. The team would be coming and the amenities, too.
Baseball's most touted team in 2016 is the Chicago Cubs, thanks to the resources of Ricketts and work of Epstein to construct a winner. The Cubs' big business is thriving, and the century-old ballpark is two phases in to a dramatic rebuild. Players joining the organization stayed patient waiting for modern accommodations. Now, they've been rewarded.
The Cubs now have the best player facilities and amenities in baseball. Their clubhouse went from a shoebox size to 30,000 square feet, a perfect circle symbolic of team chemistry with mood lighting that resembles a night club.
"Great to deliver for the players," Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney said. "They've been putting up with the worst facilities in baseball for a long time."
Epstein and Kenney joined the media on a guided Tuesday tour of the Cubs' new facilities, with the baseball and business presidents looking on with pride. This was their vision coming to a reality. Both were constantly working with Ricketts to create the perfect environment for their team to thrive. Epstein joked that his frequent texts to players about every detail to the facilities made him into an overzealous interior designer.
That swanky Cubs clubhouse is just the start of it. Around the corner is an extensive weight room with every machine imaginable. Epstein joked the Cubs couldn't do anything that moved more than eight inches in their old digs.
Down the hallway is the home of the Cubs' new training room, which includes a large pool area, deprivation and hyperbaric chambers, hot and cold tubs, underwater treadmills and rehabilitation equipment that allows Wrigley Field to house recoveries. Kyle Schwarber was on hand prior to Tuesday's media tour, getting treatment to his left knee injuries.
To no surprise, the only active Cub on sight for training on the off day was reigning NL Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta, who doesn't take many days off.
Putting in perspective how the Cubs have upgraded their facilities, the old clubhouse -- a cramped rectangular space underneath the third-base stands -- is now barely enough space for the batting cage Wrigley Field has been missing.
The entire undertaking was greater than Kenney ever envisioned.
Fitting for a winning ballclub, the Cubs converted space that was used for storage next to the old clubhouse into a celebration room, with a disco ball, strobe lights, fog machines and drainage in the floor for the customary beverage showers.
After all, this rebuilt Cubs organization plans for many parties in the coming years.
The Cubs now have baseball's best player amenities and are working through phases to restore Wrigley Field for another 100 years. These ventures run parallel with Epstein's vision becoming a reality in the baseball operations department.
Credit Ricketts for trusting his personnel and staying patient. The Cubs are closing in on something special.
"We're making significant progress," Epstein said. "That's a nice feeling, to have it sync up. The symbiotic relationship between the baseball and the business side and the support of ownership, it's getting us closer to where we want to be, which is celebrating a World Series in a brand new ballpark with a healthy and thriving business side as well."
Chris Emma covers the Chicago sports scene and more for CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670 and like his Facebook page.
