OPs

In another life, I drove a forklift for a company that sold wire by the coil.  It was at the company warehouse that Eddie, our truck driver, told me that the best cigarettes in all the world were “OPs.”  When he saw the confused look on my face, Eddie explained, “Other people’s.”  More than forty years later, this remains one of the great lessons in my life.  Human beings like nothing so much as using other human beings’ stuff, or pretending they are.

 

I was reminded of that after reading a column in today’s Sun-Times by Rick Morrissey, who thinks, “The Cubs have the money to sign [Bryce] Harper.”  The problem, according to Morrissey, is that, “They don’t want to spend the money to sign him.”  Too bad Morrissey can’t prove it.

 

Oh, he says that the Cubs are worth $2.9 billion and he quotes a team official who said in 2015, “Basically, my job is [to] fill a wheelbarrow with money, take it to Theo [Epstein’s] office and dump it.”  But where’s the budget for 2018, showing income and expenditures?  Has anything changed for the Ricketts’ family since 2015?  Have their investments taken a beating or gone through the roof to the point they could sign five Bryce Harpers?  Real journalists would address those questions.

 

Like most sports’ columnists, Morrissey is lazy and can’t be bothered to back up his opinions with facts.  What he wants is for the Cubs to turn into the Yankees back when George Steinbrenner signed players on a whim.  Then, when it turns out to be an Ed Whitson or Jason Giambi, Morrissey can write how stupid the Cubs are throwing around money when they should be developing talent from within.

Opinions are easy to come by, especially when you don’t have to bother with facts.  Personally, I think the Cubs can afford to sign someone like Harper, but I don’t know that for a fact.  Neither does Rick Morrissey.