Tuesday, July 17, 2001
McGriff puts family first, says no to Cubs
By Mike Lopresti
Gannett News Service
The son's name is Erick. The daughter's name is Ericka. The boy is 10 and the girl is 8, and now the world, or at least Chicago, knows what they mean to their father.
There is a wife, too. And a widowed mother. There is home, there is contentment, and not even a baseball general manager with a plum offer can put a price on that.
And so today Fred McGriff is still a Tampa Bay Devil Ray and not a Chicago Cub.
Oh, it is plain enough what he is giving up, if he does not change his mind, which he always could.
On paper, he is crazy to stay.
McGriff is 25 games out of first place with the Devil Rays, when he could be
three games in front with the Cubs.
He will continue to play in a leaden dome, where the home team strains to draw 15,000. When he could be performing in the sunlight of one of baseball's shrines, where the stands are packed daily.
The season will end, without ceremony or much meaning, on Sept. 30 against Toronto. When he could have an October in Wrigley Field.
He could be a hero in Chicago. Instead, he will be a hero in his family room.
It is not always about the money. Not always about the years on the contract or the perks in the fine print.
Simple pleasures
Sometimes, it is more simple. It can be about a man playing in his hometown, in the place he once sold soda at the football games. A man now raising his family where he was raised, unwilling to uproot them. Or even worse, move to a strange city for months without them.
For what is a baseball game when you are missing your daughter's choir concert? Baseball is in its third century. She is 8 only once.
For the past five days, the awful dilemma played out in McGriff's mind. He is 37, with a lot of honorable baseball behind him. But the bat still works — .329 average, 18 home runs — and so he is a valuable commodity for any team needing one last piece in the puzzle.
That it should be the Cubs who came calling seemed so perfect.
To the nation, the Cubs are a little like orphans, worthy of sympathy and impossible to dislike. They have suffered enough to deserve some good times, and somehow you are sure they will suffer again.
What better place for an aging star to get in a few last meaningful licks than Wrigley Field?
Plus, the Cubs were offering to pick up his option next year for $6.75 million. Tampa Bay might not.
On this past Sunday, McGriff hit two home runs to beat Atlanta.
The Cubs could only watch, thinking how much easier the Houston Astros would be to hold back with Sammy Sosa in the batter's box and McGriff in the on-deck circle.
His final answer?
This is baseball. Sometimes the final answer is not the final answer. As Tampa Bay's general manager said Monday, a deal was still possible, given a McGriff change of heart.
But if this is his last word, it can best be appreciated by anyone who has ever had to walk out the door with a suitcase, leaving behind sad eyes and a young voice asking when daddy will be back home.
He chose home. Feel free to argue with it. I can't.
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McGriff puts family first, says no to Cubs
