The arrival of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center this week provides the Chicago Cubs with an opportunity for some very special guest performers during the seventh-inning stretch.
The Cubs begin a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field and have an array of big names to choose from.
Imagine Vice President Kamala Harris taking the mic on Wednesday, the day before her coronation as the Democratic nominee.
Or President Joe Biden taking a final bow Thursday afternoon after singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” then asking to have some “speaks” with the home plate umpire, a la Steve McMichael.
Or if they’re seeking a Cubs-fan-turned-politician, perhaps Hillary Clinton, who famously was booed at Wrigley in 1994 when she sang along with Harry Caray during her stint as first lady. Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts was a prominent fundraiser for Clinton during her failed presidential bid in 2016 and is a prominent advocate for LGBTQ and women’s communities.
Perhaps the only one who should be off-limits is former President Barack Obama, a renowned White Sox fan, even though he once mispronounced “Comiskey Park.” Obama wouldn’t be welcomed by Joe Ricketts, the patriarch of the family that owns the Cubs. Ricketts’s racist emails that included conspiracy theories about the former president were leaked in 2019, forcing Chairman Tom Ricketts to apologize on behalf of the organization.
Obama welcomed the Cubs to the White House in 2017 after their championship season, where Cubs president Theo Epstein joked he offered him a “midnight pardon” to switch his allegiance from the Sox to the Cubs.
“We know you may have some allegiances to another team on another side of town, but we know you’re a very proud Chicagoan, and we know your better half, the first lady, has been a lifetime and very loyal Cubs fan, which we appreciate very much,” Epstein said during the ceremonies.
Obama said that Epstein’s success leading two drought-stricken organizations to the “promised land” made him a perfect candidate for chairman of the DNC.
“Good thing I signed a contract with Tom Ricketts, who was kicking me, saying I can’t leave,” Epstein said. “It was a kind offer, though.”
Security and scheduling conflicts preclude the possibility of any big-name politico singing during the seventh-inning stretch for any of the Cubs-Tigers games, according to team sources. But, as Rev. Jesse Jackson likes to say: Keep hope alive.
This DNC could’ve been Epstein’s big moment had he listened to the advice of some who urged him after the 2016 Cubs championship to enter politics.
“I’ve often said that someday Theo Epstein will be a Democratic senator from Massachusetts or Illinois, and he’ll one day run for president and win,” the late Hall of Fame baseball writer Nick Cafardo wrote in the Boston Globe.
That didn’t happen, and probably won’t. Epstein currently lives in Connecticut but still has no interest in entering politics.
Political analyst David Axelrod once told Politico that Epstein could win a statewide election in Illinois if he decided to run.
“He’s got a positive image here and he’s a very bright, elegant thinker,” Axelrod said. “Very public spirited. His ego is in check. He’s got a lot of the requisite qualities except one: the desire to hold public office.”
Epstein, a progressive Democrat, continued as Cubs president until 2020, then took a year off and became a consultant to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, helping to institute the pace of game rules in 2023 before leaving this year to join Fenway Sports Group. He says he has no interest in replacing Manfred whenever the commissioner retires.
“The whole world is watching” was the mantra from the Chicago riots during the 1968 Democratic Convention, when the Chicago police battled with protesters in Grant Park.
That was an embellishment, however. Most of my friends and I were out playing baseball until it got too dark, like any 10-year-old back then.
Except for the constant news reports of the downtown battles between the police and hippies, our eyes were tuned into the Cubs or White Sox.
The Cubs were on their way to 84 wins and just turning the corner in their rebuild, which culminated in the 1969 season that ended in a collapse. Sox fans, like always, were worried about the owner moving a dreadful team to another city.
On the first day of the convention, the Sox played a home game in Milwaukee, drawing 42,808 to County Stadium for a 3-0 loss to the Tigers. The Sox played nine games in Milwaukee that year in an attempt to boost attendance and promote the city as a major-league town after the Braves fled to Atlanta a few years earlier. They went 1-8 in those games but averaged 29,506 fans, much more than they did at Comiskey Park for a 95-loss team.
After a home game at Comiskey against the Tigers on Day 2 of the convention, they had a two-game series against the New York Yankees. Joe Horlen and Wilbur Wood combined on a 1-0 shutout on Aug. 29, which drew 8,148 to Comiskey Park while the riots raged on a few miles north.
The Cubs played in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the ’68 Convention, though they were missing starter Ken Holtzman, who was called back to Chicago for his National Guard duties. The National Guard was called out to help quell the violence, though Holtzman was not put in the middle of the conflict, according to reports.
One Cubs official complained to the Tribune about the decision to play a night game on Aug. 27 at Candlestick Park that drew only 6,578, saying “We could have drawn more with a day game.”
Giants fans were more interested in watching the goings on in Chicago than a meaningless Cubs-Giants game.
The woeful Sox, coincidentally, are in San Francisco on Monday through Wednesday, hoping to avoid setting a modern-day record for futility with 121 losses.
The whole world will not be watching.