New chapter in Neb. baseball story

The Ricketts family's purchase of the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field is the latest chapter in the long story of Nebraska and big league baseball.

“Nebraska's rich in baseball heritage and history,” said Loren Studley, a director of the Museum of Nebraska Major League Baseball in St. Paul.

While the state has never had a major league team, it has sent about 140 players to The Show and counts seven members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame with strong Nebraska ties.

Six were born in Nebraska: Grover Cleveland Alexander (inducted in 1938), Richie Ashburn, Wade Boggs, Wahoo Sam Crawford, Bob Gibson and Billy Southworth.

The seventh, Arthur “Dazzy” Vance, was born in Orient, Iowa, but grew up in Nebraska. Six other Iowa natives are in the Hall, including pitcher Bob Feller.

“It goes back to Grover Cleveland Alexander,” Studley said shortly after Tuesday's announcement that the Ricketts-Cubs deal was final.

“But actually, Nebraska baseball's major league players date back even earlier. (Alexander) was the biggest name, especially for us because he was born and raised out here,” Studley said. (Alexander was born in Elba, a few miles northwest of St. Paul.)

The museum throws out these major league Nebraska nuggets:

— One-third of the starting lineup of the Baltimore Orioles in the 1961 and 1962 seasons were Nebraska natives: Russ Snyder, Ron Hansen and Jackie Brandt.

— Several current major leaguers have Nebraska ties, including Joba Chamberlain, Brian Duensing, Buddy Carlyle, Alex Gordon and Darin Erstad. Chamberlain is likely to come out of the New York Yankees' bullpen several times during the World Series, which begins tonight at Yankee Stadium.

— Alexander is tied for third-winningest pitcher in baseball history, joining fellow Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson with 373 wins.

— It was a fellow Nebraskan, Omaha's Bob Gibson, who broke Alexander's season-long earned run average of 1.22, a mark set in 1915. In 1968, Gibson recorded a 1.12 ERA.

Nebraska has many other connections with the national pastime, not the least of which is the College World Series, which has ushered numerous future major leaguers — including Roger Clemens, Dave Winfield and Barry Bonds — through town in the 59 years it has been played in Omaha.

The current Cubs' general manager, Jim Hendry, took Creighton University to its only CWS appearance, in 1991.

Gene Budig, who grew up in McCook, was president of the American League from 1994 to 1999 and later a special adviser to baseball's current commissioner, Bud Selig.

Nebraska also boasts a long history of semiprofessional teams that stretches back to the 19th century, said Bob Nash, a baseball historian and librarian at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Many of those early teams had a good tradition of developing talent, Nash said. “It's had a long history of supplying players to the major leagues.”

The University of Nebraska's baseball team has given 27 major league players their collegiate start since 1951 — including four All-Stars and a three-time Gold Glove winner.

Bob Cerv became the school's first professional All-Star when he started in left field for the American League in 1958. He hit 38 home runs with the Kansas City Athletics that year, and played on four World Series teams with the Yankees — alongside Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford.

Studley, of the Museum of Nebraska Major League Baseball, said he thinks the Rickettses' purchase of the Cubs from the Tribune Co. is the first instance of Nebraskans owning all or part of a major league team.

The Ricketts family said Tuesday that it has taken a 95 percent controlling interest in the franchise and its storied ballpark and 25 percent of Comcast Sportsnet.

The deal is valued at $845 million. Joe Ricketts is the founder of Omaha-based TD Ameritrade.

After taxes and fees, the Chicago-based Tribune Co., which owns newspapers and TV stations, expects to reap about $740 million from unloading most of its stake in the baseball team. The Tribune Co. will maintain a 5 percent stake.

Tom Ricketts, 44, who will serve as board chairman, said the board “will go to work building the championship tradition that all Cubs fans so richly deserve.”

Longtime Cubs fan Dan Carney of La Vista laughed when he heard that statement. But he said the ownership change is exciting.

“I think it's great that the team has got some ownership that isn't embroiled in any bankruptcy issues,” he said. “Hopefully at some point, the ownership ... can start to spend some money that the club needs to spend.”

Carney said the bankruptcy situation may have limited the Cubs when it came time to make acquisitions that could have helped the team in the second half of this season.

He said having a Nebraska link to Cubs ownership “is kind of cool.”

“As a Cubs fan and as a guy from Nebraska, I think it's great. But ... this club really needs to have an owner that takes an interest in rebuilding this from the bottom up.”

This report includes material from the Associated Press.

« Metro/Region

Share