The announcement of Cubs Convention occasions Monday helped Cubs followers quickly overlook concerning the crew’s lack of any offseason signings, whereas concurrently reminding White Sox followers that SoxFest stays on hiatus.
Fan fests have been an annual winter advertising and marketing software for our two groups for the reason that Cubs invented the style in 1986 as a method to get folks within the upcoming season and possibly promote a couple of tickets. The primary distinction between the 2 native fan fests is that Cubs followers typically need autographs and to be near the gamers, whereas Sox followers need their pound of flesh from administration for the crew’s inadequacies.
This would’ve been a pleasant probability for first-year basic supervisor Chris Getz to get his first official grilling, although it’s onerous to think about the genial Getz barking again like his predecessors.
Oh effectively. Maybe subsequent yr.
Whether these fan fests are an outdated concept in 2024 is debatable, however traditions in Chicago are value preserving, so for the Cubs, the infomercial should go on.
I’ve been protecting these occasions for the reason that Cubs billed theirs because the “Cubs Diehard Convention” again in 1987, when announcer Harry Caray normally might be discovered on the lodge bar and basic supervisor Dallas Green requested noisy fan Ronnie Woo-Woo to pipe down.
The names of the gamers and administration have modified over the past 37 years. Sad to confess the one issues remaining in 2024 is likely to be me and Mr. Woo-Woo.
The Cubs even canceled this yr’s seminar with enterprise administration, taking away the soapbox from president of enterprise operations Crane Kenney due to low scores. He completed simply forward of the homeowners, whose panel additionally was canceled. But Cubs followers can attend a reception the place they will “chat with Tom Ricketts over a beverage,” in response to a information launch. It didn’t say whether or not Ricketts was getting the spherical.
The Cubs additionally scheduled a seminar that includes among the Cubs from the 2016 championship, and hopefully former supervisor David Ross can crash it and convey some drama to the weekend in case there is no such thing as a last-minute Cody Bellinger signing to announce.
As for the Sox, it’s simply one other misplaced alternative for a corporation in determined want of attracting consideration that doesn’t contain gunshots. While the Sox haven’t formally canceled SoxFest ‘24, as they did the 2023 version, it’s getting late to ebook a lodge and promote tickets, until they’re considering of pitching a tent in some open area in Brighton Park.
Barring a minor miracle, it’s not occurring. Pedro Grifol skates once more.
Many Sox followers have supplied theories for the crew’s disinterest in holding one other SoxFest. Most of those I’ve heard revolve round administration’s alleged unwillingness to take care of followers indignant over the crew’s course, or with Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf for being Jerry Reinsdorf.
But these have been thorny offseason points for a few years and SoxFest continued, so I’m guessing the explanations are purely monetary. If there was cash to make, the Sox certainly can be all in.
I’ve been to a dozen or so SoxFests for the reason that inaugural affair in 1992 and watched many followers get into heated debates with executives Ken Williams and Rick Hahn that have been as entertaining as you may think. It obtained everybody into the correct temper for the season, when followers would then transfer their critiques to Sox Twitter.
So what can the Sox do to advertise the crew with out SoxFest?
The greatest guess can be to revive the outdated winter caravan the place the crew would collect the supervisor, some coaches and gamers and journey by bus to some distant outpost like Valparaiso, Ind., or Iowa City for a brunch or luncheon. When the crew travels all the best way to their city to say hiya, followers are far much less prone to begin harassing them over their shortcomings.
Unfortunately, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America can’t assist, as we did for a few years from the Forties to ‘90s. For over 5 a long time, the native chapter of the BBWAA held a midwinter awards ceremony referred to as the “Diamond Dinner” at a downtown lodge and invited followers to attend, with proceeds going to charity.
Former Tribune baseball author Jerome Holtzman informed a narrative of choosing up Mickey Mantle at O’Hare in a limo and stopping off at his home in Evanston, the place his kids had written “Welcome Mickey” indicators and taped them on the partitions. He later went again to O’Hare and picked up Sandy Koufax, then requested the Dodgers nice if he might cease off, too.
“And when we arrived, the kids had taken down the Mickey Mantle signs and had replaced them with ‘Welcome Sandy Koufax,’” he wrote.
Holtzman wasn’t referred to as “the Dean” for nothing.
The final Diamond Dinner I recall attending was in 1985, honoring Tom Seaver, Bill Veeck, Rick Sutcliffe, Harold Baines, Ryne Sandberg, Gary Matthews and others. The late sports activities author Bill Gleason, who lived for the second, was grasp of ceremonies, and Sox supervisor Tony La Russa and Cubs supervisor Jim Frey have been additionally featured.
It all appeared like one large completely happy household again then.
Once the Cubs started inviting their gamers for their very own winter conference, they noticed no must convey them in for a writers’ banquet. “We have a hard time getting our ballplayers to come in for that,” one Cubs official informed Holtzman in 1993. “We can’t ask them to come in twice.”
The Diamond Dinner was briefly missed after which forgotten.
Some followers have lobbied the present baseball writers to reboot the dinner, noting that the New York and St. Louis chapters have baseball banquets for his or her followers. But the Chicago writers would want the cooperation of the 2 groups and the star gamers. That’s a attain nowadays, the place groups must be in control of each element to have a working relationship with the media. The Chicago chapter of the BBWAA can also be a lot smaller than it was years in the past.
Holtzman was sorry to see the dinner finish, however wrote that an outdated good friend conceded to him “even the oldest traditions don’t go on forever.”
Maybe SoxFest can be again in the future. Or possibly, just like the Diamond Dinner, it is going to merely be a blast from the previous.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com