These aren’t the best days to be Chicago Cubs fans, with the team in full crumble-mode.
But to hear a Swisher family tell it, Cubs supporters have something to take comfort in. The soon-to-be owners of the franchise apparently care about their club’s fans.
Mary and Charlie Gudenkauf and their three daughters went to Chicago two weeks ago for a vacation. One of the things they wanted to do there was see a Cubs game, but you don’t just walk up to a Wrigley Field ticket window and buy five tickets for a Cubs game in August. Those were sold long ago.
So the family went to the ballpark with tempered hopes of buying bleacher seats from scalpers before the Aug. 12 Philadelphia Phillies-Cubs game. That’s not so easy to do if you aren’t willing or able to pay their inflated prices.
“My husband and the three girls (ages 16, 13 and 11) went off to get some ice cream and I was hanging out by the Ernie Banks statue,” said Mary, the director of career services at Prairie High School.
“This gentleman was standing by me, and he started asking me a few questions. He looked like a reputable guy, so I told him I was an Iowa educator here with my family trying to get tickets, and I was scared about buying some that might be counterfeit.
“He said ‘You just hang tight. I might be able to get you some tickets.’ We spent the next 20 minutes talking about our families, and he kind of nonchalantly said ‘My son’s trying to buy the team.’
“One part of me thought ‘Yeah, whatever.’ Another part thought ‘Did he just say what I think he said?’ Somehow the subject came back to his kids, and he said ‘My son’s representing our family in this transaction.’
“I thought ‘His kids say they want to buy the Cubs and mine are getting ice cream cones.’ I thought that was funny.”
Mary’s family rejoined her and she quietly told them this man with her was potentially the Cubs’ next owner. Lifelong Cub fan Charlie began peppering the fellow with questions.
The man was Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade. He and his son, investment banker Tom Ricketts of Chicago, have reached an agreement with Tribune Company to buy the team and Wrigley Field from the Trib for $845 million, pending approval of Major League Baseball’s owners.
After speaking to his son’s assistant, Ricketts arranged for the family to get complimentary tickets.
“He said ‘Enjoy the game’ and was walking away,” Mary said. “I kind of grabbed him by the elbow and said ‘Listen, Joe, that’s not who we are or how we operate.’”
Meaning, the family wasn’t comfortable not paying its own way.
“I had a little bit of cash in my pocket and tried to give it to him,” she said, “but he said ‘I am not taking your money.’ It probably was like a pop can off the street to him.
“I told him that was an amazing thing to do for strangers. He said ‘We’re not strangers here, we’re all Cub fans.’
“That was so cool!”
The last thing Mary told the billionaire was “We have a big pay-it-forward notion in our family. When somebody does a random act of kindness for us, we want to pay it forward to someone else. We will, believe me.”
After Charlie quickly bought Cubs shirts for each of his daughters to wear into the stadium, the family was escorted to its seats.
“We were nine rows behind the dang dugout!” Mary said. “My husband was about ready to pee his pants. The kids’ eyes were big as could be.
“It was just the best day.”
http://gazetteonline.com/sports/2009/08 ... ve-a-heart
