Cub Tracks’ beginning of the end?

Photo by \ufffd\ufffd Franklin McMahon/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty ImagesManfred is a four-letter word. This kinda $#!% gets my dander up.

The Cubs’ competitive window apparently will close at about the same time that the game itself will close. Baseball and indeed all competitive sports have a history of being held hostage to the desires of the well-heeled big wheels that run everything, and damn the wishes of the players and fans.

For example, in 1889: The National League issues its reply to the Players League manifesto. Claiming that the League saved baseball in 1876 and that under the reserve rules players’ salaries have “more than trebled,” the NL denounces the Brotherhood movement as “the…