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Successful 2023 Cubs Convention screams ‘Baseball is Back’ for fans, collectors
Now that the Super Bowl is over and Spring Training is under way, we can look forward to fantasizing about how our favorite Major League Baseball teams will do in the 2023 season.
Before we do, however, we look back at how important the mid-winter fan conventions are for getting us ready for baseball’s return, because, as we all know, nothing screams “BASEBALL IS BACK” more convincingly than those annual conventions.
While many teams now hold such gatherings, none screams louder or better than the granddaddy of them all — the annual Chicago Cubs Convention.
This year’s convention was held at the Sheraton Grand Chicago hotel in mid-January. First held officially in 1986 and known then as the “Cubs Die Hard Fan Convention,” the gathering has been held every year since, except for the pandemic years of 2021 and 2022.
The original convention, and several that followed, were muted affairs because the Cubs were feeling their way. However, once the team understood how important the convention was for sustaining fan interest during typically brutal Chicago winters, the convention began to grow and take on a more circus-like atmosphere.
In the beginning, only a few players attended and presentations by the front office people tended to be quiet and circumspect. Only a few vendors showed up to hawk memorabilia and vendor booths were mostly staffed with Cubs employees trying to sell season tickets or subscriptions to Vine Line, the team’s in-house magazine.
Fast forward to 2023, however, and those early participants would be amazed to see that almost every current player, plus a multitude of alumni, prospects and team executives, were involved in staging this year’s event. In fact, so many players are now involved that the team has to provide each of them with an identifying jersey so fans can tell them apart.
As in the past, this year’s convention opened on Friday afternoon with a live auction of game-used uniforms and equipment. The principal purpose of the auction is to raise funds for Cubs Charities, but it also provides a terrific opportunity for collectors to grab desired items for their collections, like a Nico Hoerner jersey or a Patrick Wisdom bat.
Because the Cubs lacked any true superstars last season, collectors basically had to settle for bidding on items from young players whom they hope will eventually have stellar careers. It may be different at next year’s auction, though, because the team added several All-Star caliber players, like Dansby Swanson, Cody Bellinger and Jameson Taillon to the 2023 roster.
In addition to the live auction, the team also set up a temporary Cubs Authentics store where fans could purchase pricier merchandise like bats, balls, jerseys, caps and cleats signed by Cubs Hall of Famers Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, Lee Smith and Fergie Jenkins, to name a few. This pop-up store also had some more reasonably priced items, like locker-room nameplates, wristbands and game-used bases, for sale.
While the live auction was going on downstairs, the team was holding the annual Media Social upstairs. This is a highly anticipated event where working media stiffs can mingle with players, alumni, prospects and team executives to discuss the new season and steps the team has taken to make it a success. A lot of the conversation revolved around the addition of several free agents, as well as the steps taken to enhance its starting rotation and bullpen.
However, not everything was serious business. There was also a lot of reminiscing among the old-timers, with a lot of good-natured ribbing about receding hairlines and expanding waistlines. Actually, it might be fair to compare the Cubs’ Media Social at times to Super Bowl Media Day — serious business mixed with chaotic fun, except that nobody shows up in costume.
Most conversations with current players revolved around their health, past performance, offseason workouts, and their prospects for the new year. However, breaking through all this chatter, there is always that one media guy who shows up at each Cubs Convention to ask players about their baseball card collections. You guessed it, those questions come from the SCD representative.
Many of the younger players, particularly the prospects, readily admit to having been avid card collectors when they were kids, with several pointing out that their interest in collecting was sparked by their dads’ interest in the hobby. Those players who collected along with their dads felt that the hobby provided them with a much-valued opportunity for father-son bonding, especially when their dads would pull out their old cards and go through them with the kids.
While the kids had no idea who the players on those old cards were, they took note of how happy the dads were to hold those cards and be able to recount to their sons the exploits of their favorite players. Most of the young players hoped that one day they would be able to share their cards and stories with their own kids.
One of the Cubs prized young pitchers, Hayden Wesneski, waxed eloquently about how much he enjoyed collecting cards when he was a kid, and pointed out that he still has his collection, although he has not had much time to add to it lately. He also said he kept his cards in prime condition, but when asked if he would disclose where he kept them, he said, “No!” One might expect from his response that the collection may be valuable, at least to Wesneski.
The Media Social also provided an opportunity to chat with several other top prospects, such as Matt Mervis, Zach McKinstry and Brandon Hughes. Interestingly, when you hit these guys with questions about their batting stance or, in the case of pitchers, their arm angle when releasing a cutter, you are likely to get a short, monosyllabic answer. However, when you ask them about their childhood baseball heroes, or whether they are hoping to get some quality autographs from players they will be playing with or against, their faces light up and you cannot get them to stop talking. It is refreshing to witness such childlike enthusiasm emanating from professional ballplayers.
There was also an opportunity to chat at length with the Cubs talented young infielder, Nico Hoerner, about his preparation for shifting back to second base after a terrific 2022 season at shortstop. Hoerner will have to make this shift because the Cubs were successful in signing Swanson, the Braves’ former All-Star shortstop.
Fortunately for the Cubs, Hoerner is one of those upbeat individuals who is going to have a positive attitude no matter what the game throws at him. Although he clearly prefers playing shortstop, he has already had considerable experience playing second base for the Cubs, so he is happy that Swanson is on board because he thinks he will give the Cubs an exponentially better chance of winning their division this year. And Hoerner is, if nothing else, a team-oriented guy.
The current Hoerner/Dansby situation actually contrasts to a similar situation the Cubs faced a number of years ago when Shawon Dunston was a rookie and the team brought in Larry Bowa as a veteran presence. In that case, Bowa, who was near the end of his career, evidently thought that the best way to mentor Dunston would be to push him through competition for the starting role. Bowa initially won that competition and, as a result, Dunston’ self-confidence took a hit and he was not sure where things would go from there.
However, Dunston’s friends reminded him that all he had to do was stay within himself and keep doing the things that got him to the big leagues to begin with. Sure enough, over the long run, Dunston took over that starting role and remained the Cubs shortstop for many years. Dunston has also become a treasured Cubs alum and appeared at this year’s convention to accept induction into the Cubs Hall of Fame along with long-time teammate Mark Grace.
Dunston was also spotted in deep conversation with another old teammate, Ryne Sandberg and his lovely wife, Elizabeth. Sandberg was at the convention in his role as a team ambassador, but the team decided to take advantage of his appearance to announce that a statue of Sandberg would be erected outside Wrigley Field this Summer, joining the statues of Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Harry Caray. This announcement was heartily applauded by several other former teammates in attendance, including Rick Sutcliffe, Andre Dawson, Bobby Dernier and Gary Matthews.
AUTOGRAPH OPPORTUNITIES
When the Media Social ended, the players, prospects, alumni and even the broadcasters, team owners and executives segued into the ballroom next door to prepare for their introduction to the crowd at the Opening Ceremony. All of them were paraded across a large stage while fans screamed themselves hoarse in welcome. The smallest kids were allowed to press themselves up against the foot of the stage so they could trade high-fives with the players as they were introduced. Then everyone got to watch a video montage of last season’s highlights, and the fans got to scream again.
When the Opening Ceremony concluded, fans were encouraged to run around the hotel looking for players holding surprise autograph sessions for approximately 45 minutes. There were usually long lines for these players. When that was over, everyone reconvened in the main ballroom for an evening of fun and games led by former star Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster. This event, which generally goes late into the night, is always one of the highlights.
On Saturday morning, serious collectors hit the autograph lines as early as 6 a.m., even though the lines did not officially open until 9. Since there was no one available to guide fans to the proper lines that early, chaos reigned until the ushers and security people finally showed up. By that time, however, collectors and fans had already organized themselves into ad hoc, haphazard lines that snaked around the entire convention floor. If there was one complaint heard from fans at this year’s convention, it was how frustrating that experience truly was.
As for the autograph sessions, if you were not lucky enough to get to the head of a line when it opened, you could count on spending a considerable amount of time waiting in line for a couple of signatures from the players sitting on a small stage at the front of the line. The Cubs had set up a series of five small stages at one end of the main convention floor and seated either one or two players on each stage, depending on how much in demand they expected the various players to be.
High-demand players like Hall of Famers Sandberg, Dawson and Lee Smith, as well as certain better-known players, like Wisdom, Cody Bellinger and Tucker Barnhart, sat alone on their stages. Minor league prospects, for the most part, sat two to a stage, although highly-prized prospects like Matt Mervis and Pete Armstrong-Crow each sat alone. Each session was scheduled for one hour, and then the players on the stage would rotate and their place would be taken by the next set of scheduled players.
Fans had to vie for a limited number of vouchers for each player session and you were not allowed to hold more than one player voucher at a time. If you managed to get to the head of a line and get a player’s autograph with time to spare, you were allowed to hustle over to another line and try for a second autograph during the same session. By the time you got to the second line, however, the vouchers for that player would likely be gone. You could still stand in line, but you would not be guaranteed an autograph, as you would if you were holding a voucher. Plus, it should be noted that several of the more in-demand players could only be accessed through vouchers obtained in a scratch-off lottery.
In a welcome change from the past, the ushers at this year’s convention actually bent over backward to be helpful. Previously, that was not always the case. But this year the ushers were truly friendly, and for that, Jen Martindale should be commended for the training of her “boots on the ground” staff.
An example of how things changed was the way in which photos could be taken. At previous conventions, selfies and photos taken by friends were not allowed because it was assumed they would seriously delay the lines. But this year, the ushers not only refrained from discouraging such photos, they actually volunteered to take the photos for you so you did not have to strain awkwardly for that selfie. Almost everyone took advantage of this welcome assistance, and the lines did not seem to be negatively impacted.
Also important this year was the way in which the informational panels were scheduled. For many years, the panels of players and team executives were scheduled to take place simultaneously, rather than consecutively. Thus, if you were the kind of person who eschewed standing in line for autographs and preferred to attend the panels in order to glean information about the inner workings of the team, you would have to choose carefully among the panels because you would not be able to attend them all. But by scheduling the panels consecutively this year, you did not have to choose. You could stay in the same seat all day and listen to every single panel, including the Kids-Only Press Conference, which is always enjoyable because of the embarrassing questions kids always ask of the participating players.
Another exciting innovation was the way in which the players’ instructional sessions with the kids was handled. Previously, there would be one or two players at each hitting or pitching or base-running session, and the kids really did not have much of an opportunity to interact with the participating players. This year, because there were so many players in attendance, the kids were flooded with opportunities to interact. And the players, particularly the prospects, seemed to really get into it with the kids, running around and helping the little ones understand the basics of each skill. The parents also seemed to enjoy standing on the outside of the ropes around the teaching area and watching their children have the time of their lives.
CUBS MEMORABILIA
The Cubs also set up displays in several small meeting rooms where they placed various items of interest to fans. One room was dedicated to items from the Cubs’ 2016 World Series victory, while another displayed historical items from other Cubs teams of note, such as the much-beloved 1969 team that should have won the pennant but caved at the end. That team had four Hall of Famers — Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins and Ron Santo — and a guy who threw a no-hitter (Ken Holtzman), but all to no avail.
Other rooms held tables manned by representatives of the Cubs’ minor league affiliates hawking tickets for their upcoming seasons. And, of course, there were a number of memorabilia dealers scattered around the convention floor offering items for sale.
All in all, the 36th Cubs Convention was a blast for everyone. In talking to fans who were standing in lines or buying stuff from dealers, it was apparent that many had come from all over the Chicago area and beyond just to enjoy the company of fellow fans and meet some of the heroes they hope to be rooting for this summer and for many seasons to come.
