The Great Statue Debate

Yesterday, the Chicago Cubs unveiled their newest statue to Wrigley Field, and immortalized “Sweet Swinging” Billy Williams for all eternity. If Cubs President Crane Kenney is to be believed, there could very well be more statues coming to Wrigley soon. The question then becomes, who will be next? I am sure there will be several nominations for both Ron Santo and Ryne Sandberg, both of whom have been very popular Cubs and are still very involved in the Cubs organization. The ownership could not go wrong choosing either one of them, as they are all fan favorites. The only question I have, is why should they?

Yes, I am whole heartedly against the Cubs adding anymore statues to the Wrigley Field grounds, and would not have been upset if they never put up one for either Ernie Banks or Williams. They are unneeded and, in my own opinion, unwanted. In fact, you can ditch the statue for Harry Caray as well while you are at things. Granted, as Kenney said, “the fans love them” but I think they are completely unnecessary and unwarranted. What did they do, which made them worthy of having statue made for them?

Don’t misunderstand what I am saying, Banks and Williams were legendary players for the Cubs. As were both Santo and Sandberg. They are among the most popular Cubs in the long storied history of the franchise. There is no question they are worthy of being honored by the Cubs, which they were when they all had their numbers retired. They will all be remembered as long as those numbers fly on those flag poles. However, that should have been where everything ended in the honoring of the legends of the past.

Why immortalize players from the most disappointing team in the history of our franchise? Why embrace our painstaking past anymore than we have to? Why hold on and celebrate the losing culture when all you are doing is celebrating mediocrity?

Again, I am not under any circumstances calling these players mediocre. That could not be further from the truth. They are all legends and all Hall of Fame players(with the exception of Santo who should be in there already). That is not the point I am trying to drive across. The point is, the Cubs past is nothing to be proud of, celebrated or remembered.

Yes, there is an old saying which says “if you do not remember the past, you are doomed to repeat it”. That is exactly where the problem comes in with the Cubs. Our team’s culture of losing is brought up year in and year out. Every time the Cubs make the playoffs, the imaginary “goat curse” is brought up and reporters dog the players about questions about the “curse” and the drought. How has remembering the past done for the last few playoff teams? Back to back sweeps sure is a way to avoid repeating the past don’t you think? Even Derrek Lee said the pressure gets to you after a while, and brought up how you feel the burden of all 102 years on your back.

If you want to build a statue of someone, build one of a player who actually won a World Series for the Cubs, or how about three? Joe Tinker. Jonny Evers and Frank Chance are all Hall or Fame players, legends in Cubdom and are all in the Hall of Fame. You can’t retire their numbers because they didn’t wear them in those days. But honestly, I don’t want a statue of them either, but at least they have done something we could have celebrated.

In case you are wondering, no I am not against them because they are “cluttering up Wrigley” as some Cub fans have mentioned. I just don’t want to celebrate mediocre teams who accomplished nothing at all. For some reason, the 1969 Cubs (who had one of, if not the biggest collapses in baseball history) are the most beloved team in the long history of our franchise. Maybe that is because that team had a lot of great talent playing for them, but they aren’t beloved for winning anything.

The next statue I want to see put up at Wrigley Field, is of someone involved with the next Cubs team that wins a World Series. Who knows, maybe that will be Sandberg who could be the manager of that team. Perhaps they build a statue honoring all of the players on the winning team. I don’t really care who they build the statue of, as long as they wait until the Cubs win the World Series and build it for someone who won something for us.

I love Banks, he is one of the greatest players in team history, and if anyone should have gotten a statue he should have been the man. If push comes to shove, I can add in Williams (since he is already there). What set me off was the talk of more statues coming to celebrate the players from a mediocre and disappointing past.