Chasing Cubtober Presents Breaking News: McDonough Out As President!
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by LMedina86
Chicago Cubs president John McDonough will reportedly be stepping down and take over as president of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks.
McDonough took over as president on Oct. 1, 2006 after the surprise resignation of Andy MacPhail and had worked in the Chicago Cubs organization since 1983.
In his first press conference, McDonough made it clear that his number one priority was to win a World Series with the Chicago Cubs.
As president, McDonough will be remembered as the man who opened the Tribune pocketbook, overseeing the Cubs $300 million spending spree that netted manager Lou Piniella and free agents Alfonso Soriano, Ted Lilly and Mark DeRosa, among others.
McDonough will likely be remembered more for his work as the senior vice president of marketing and broadcasting.
In that role, McDonough succeeded in generating interest in a bad baseball team by selling the product. In his time with the Cubs McDonough brought the Cubs Convention and Beanie Baby giveaways.
McDonough’s move to Madison Street could be seen as the first pillar to fall in the hierarchy of the Chicago Cubs front office, and sends some clear messages to Cubdom.
There is uncertainty in the front office, and if the president of the team moves on then it wouldn’t be wrong to think about who could be next to go. Jim Hendry? Lou Piniella? Could a fire sale be off in the distance? It looks like now that anything is possible.
The sale of the Cubs is dragging because of the hang ups involved with the Tribune Co. going private. It looks like the main issue holding this thing back is a Federal Communications Commission’s rule of cross ownership of media outlets.
But the front office news doesn’t end there, with the Chicago Sun-Times reporting that John Canning will be resigning from his post as CEO of his company, Madison Dearborn Partners.
The article reports that the resignation was planned and that it had nothing to do with Canning’s interest in buying the Chicago Cubs. Canning insists that there is “nothing going on” in regards to the sale of the Cubs because the Tribune Co. has yet issue an offer book.
From the looks of things, baseball decisions are not being made by the baseball people and that lack of action could hinder the Cubs chances of being a competitive team in 2008.
