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What the Cubs want, they get—except titles

MESA, Ariz. — Tuesday presented a typical spring afternoon for baseball, at least by Midwest standards.

It was 43 degrees with a serious wind chill in play in the East Valley, the kind of foreboding day better suited to get the Milwaukee Brewers ready for a raw April experience at Wrigley Field.

Still, the traffic cones were being set up outside HoHoKam Park a good four hours before a rain-delayed exhibition game.

And that’s where the Chicago Cubs have got you, right by the purse strings.

Once again last season, the Cubs drew far more fans than any other Arizona-based team, accounting for 22 percent of the tickets sold in what is now a 15-team Cactus League. They brought in an estimated $130 million to a slumping local economy.

With no World Series titles in 102 years and one fewer playoff victory than the Brewers in the last two seasons, the Cubs are the embodiment of the huckster’s credo that a sucker is born every minute. They are a tourist trap in cleats, but heavens and earth bless ‘em, the masses sure do buy their act.

So how can anyone blame the Cubs if they swing their 1,000-pound bat to get what they want?

What the Cubs want by 2013 is a new spring playpen, or they’re outta here. Of course, some Arizona politicians are playing ball with an absurd bill that, if passed by the state, would place an 8 percent surcharge on all Cactus League tickets to help pay for an $84 million facility for the Cubs.

That’s right, the small-market Brewers could help subsidize their mega-market division rival.

“My point, and I’ve talked to other GMs about this, is why should we pay for another team?” Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said.

“I don’t care if it’s the Cubs or not. That’s a competitive edge.”

Well, you do care if it’s the Cubs because, well, they’re the Cubs.

More than that, if you’re the Brewers and your own spring clubhouse and conditioning facilities are too small and you’re helping one of the world’s most valuable franchises get bigger and better, where’s the justice in that?

Of course, there’s no such thing as fairness in pro sports. It’s like Nick Nolte’s “North Dallas Forty” character said, “Jo Bob is here to remind us that the biggest and the baddest get to make all the rules.”

The Brewers will certainly want one when their Maryvale lease expires in two years.

The Brewers may or may not be better than the Cubs on the field this season. But where commercial muscle is wielded, that plane might be marginally leveled by 2110 or when the Cubs win their next World Series, whichever comes first.