"It Starts Now"

10:44 AM: While the rain put a dark damper on traffic coming to work this morning, today marked the dawn of a new era in Cubs history.

The Ricketts family closed the transaction on Tuesday, taking over 95 percent ownership of the Chicago Cubs. Today, they met with the front office before their 11:00 press conference.

If you've heard the Ricketts family is down-to-earth and that Tom met his wife in the bleachers, it's all true. Tom and siblings Peter, Todd and Laura have a very fan-friendly way about them. They could be your neighbor.

Perhaps the only thing that might have ruffled their unflappable personalities was the all of the media attention. Tom said he was looking forward to this day being done. But being the eighth ownership group in Cubs history might merit that attention and the family is keenly aware of it.

But it is an exciting time today. The front office met for breakfast and heard from their Chairman for the first time--at least for most of the employees not involved intimately with the transaction.

One message Tom hoped to get across is that after today, the work to establish the Cubs as the best organization in baseball begins. A phrase I caught summed it all up:

"It starts now," he said.

And in fact, so does the press conference!

--Mike Huang