As you may have known, the Chicago Cubs hired Theo Epstein as their President of Baseball Operations, or Savior for short.
Many have lauded the move by Cubs owner Tom Ricketts and president Crane Kenney to bring Theo to Chicago to rebuild the Cubs. However, I recently came across some shocking evidence that shatters the generally accepted “fact” that Rickets and Kenney were responsible for Theo coming to Chicago.
The real credit should go to Eddie Vedder.
That’s right.
Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, was the real reason Theo came to Chicago.
Vedder is well known to be a lifelong Cubs fan. He wrote a song for the team, sang the 7th inning stretch, and suffered a whole inning with Len and Bob in the press box, so it’s not completely absurd to think the Cubs organization would hire Vedder to covertly recruit Theo.
Why else would Vedder betray the Cubbie blue to wear that awful Red Sox red?
I decided I needed to investigate this issue further, and what I found made me realize Pearl Jam, not just Vedder, was in on the recruitment as well.
It seems, even as early as 2006, the plan to recruit Theo was well in progress. Instead of sending young recruits to impress Theo, the Cubs organization sent the six (yes, Boom Gaspar was there too) American rockers from Seattle to show what the Cubs had to offer.
Could this have meant that the Cubs were thinking of signing the members of Pearl Jam to the team at the same time too? It’s possible given the skills we see in the video, which are on par with most players on the Cubs.
This is, indeed, a very surprising finding, but it’s not out of character for the Cubs, who like to sign big names with little constraint and thought. With a 3-7 record , a holding of last place in the NL Central, and decreasing home game attendance, the Cubs may want to reconsider signing the American rockers.
About Tyler Juranovich
Brilliant observation. Well done!