Yahoo! Sports has an excerpt from Dallas Green’s new book, The Mouth that Roared. It is published by Chicago-based Triumph Books.
In this piece, Green focuses on his time as general manager of the Cubs during the Cubs in the 1980s. He talks about holding out to acquire a minor leaguer named Ryne Sandberg from the Phillies. Turned out to be a good trade.
Green came to Chicago with high hopes. Then he encountered the realities of trying to get it done at Wrigley Field.
Green writes:
With that in mind, Bing Hampton came up with a hell of a slogan for the Cubs: “Building a New Tradition.” It was a way for us to hedge. The new tradition of winning wouldn’t take hold overnight. A blind man could see that. But it was being built … or so we hoped.
Not everybody embraced the idea of the Cubs as winners. Some so-called fans actually liked the decades of losing. Studs Terkel, the legendary Chicago writer, summed up that mind-set best when he said, “I think they’re more endearing in defeat than in victory. I like their loser-like quality.”
That’s what we were up against.
Later, he wrote:
I leveled with Cubs fans about their misplaced love of failure, a phenomenon further perpetuated by the 1969 team. I did a call-in radio show in Chicago that gave me a chance to interact with fans. And by that I mean it gave me a chance to set fans straight on some things.
“The ’69 team that you loved so much lost,” I told them. “They were losers. Why did they lose? Because Wrigley Field didn’t have lights. The team got tired from coming off the road late at night and then reporting to the ballpark early for day games. That sapped their stamina.”
This excerpt doesn’t include Green discussing in the book his efforts to land free agent Steve Garvey for the Cubs. Green thought he had the deal done, which would have then had him trading Bill Buckner. However, Green says Tribune Co. wouldn’t approve.
Green wrote he felt betrayed. As a result, he never got it done with the Cubs.
When I was in college doing a 400 level paper I chose the topic, ‘the role of the sports broadcaster…’ as part of this while on Christmas break I arranged to speak with folks like Chet Coppock, Harry Caray, Johnny Morris and was able to set up a meeting with former Sox and Cubs broadcaster Vince Lloyd.
We met at the WGN-TV studios on Bradley Place and he gave me about an hour and a half of his time. A real gentleman and had a lot of advice / stories.
One thing he told me that I always thought was funny (being a Sox fan) was that one time he actually asked Mr. Wrigley the owner, in a conversation about why the Cubs just couldn’t win and why they didn’t seem to try. Lloyd told me that Wrigley told him, “we’re not interested in winning…we’re interested in entertaining.”
That’s the Cubs problem in a nutshell…the ivy, the sun, the cold beer, the coed’s in the bleachers, the 7th inning stretch song…EVERYTHING is important to that organization…but winning. And you know what? It still isn’t the primary focus. Which is why even under the latest ‘savior’ Theo, they won’t win.
It’s just in their genes to lose
Got Bowa, then Cey AND he wanted Garvey? Green sure did love the late 70’s.
Meantime, bargain-priced Buckner slightly outperformed over-priced Garvey 83-86 at the plate:
Garvey: .278 BA / 615 H / 60 HR / 307 RBI in 578 Gms (SD)
Buckner: .280 BA / 675 H / 61 HR / 347 RBI in 603 Gms (CHI-BSN)
Tribune made the right call.
Green, though, didn’t like Buckner. Thought he was just a stats guy and not a good team player. Thought Garvey would be better fit.