Marquee failed us again
And Crane has all kinds of news about the business side's terrible new ideas

Friday was quite a day for the Cubs. They got to finally formally announce the signing of Japanese star Seiya Suzuki. Crane Kenney gave a wide ranging interview to the Tribune’s Meghan Montemurro about all of the genius business things his crew has cooked up. And to prove how savvy they are they couldn’t figure out how to broadcast Seiya’s introductory press conference live.
We ask this all the time, but we do it for a reason. What is the point of having your own TV network if you have no clue how to actually use it? Three years into this abomination and the only thing we can count on is that when the Cubs make actual news there’s no reason to bother checking to see if Marquee is covering it, or talking about it, or acknowledging it exists.
And, it wasn’t even just Marquee. The entire Cubs organization managed to bungle this. Shortly before the press conference was due to start at 2:15 Central time, the Cubs YouTube page started a countdown, and then, right as the conference was starting we got this:
Quality.
— Desipio.com (@desipiodotcom) 7:12 PM ∙ Mar 18, 2022
And it stayed like that for an hour, then a recording of the press conference finally went up. Did they embargo their own news?
Suzuki is one of the most popular players in the history of Japanese baseball. How do the Cubs capitalize on the international appeal of their new signing? By not letting people in Japan see or hear from him.
By now, we are painfully aware of the public relations and communications failings of this organization, but they don’t really need to go out of their way to remind us over and over again.
I will give them credit, as least for this introductory press conference they had an actual interpreter there instead of just making Henry Blanco do it.
Suzuki will wear 27 which he chose to honor his favorite player, Mike Trout. I was glad to see the Cubs make the tough decision and let him have it, as tempted as they are I’m sure to retire it for Addison Russell.
Let’s hope Seiya changes the luck of that number. Since Derrick May1 wore it for five seasons from 1990 to 1994, 27 has been worn by 18 players and only three (Joe Girardi in his return to the team from 2001-2002), tiny little Casey Coleman (2010-2012) and Russell (who changed from 22 and wore it from 2016-2019) have worn it for more than one season.
Check out all the studs who have worn 27 over that time: