Chicago Cubs Convention

Down on the Farm ... presented by the VineLine was the final session of the weekend. Mike Huang, editor of the VineLine hosted the session that featured Oneri Fleita (Vice President of Player Personnel) and Tim Wilken (Cubs Scouting Director) ... along with Andrew Cashner, Brett Jackson, James Adduci and Welington Castillo.

The afternoon sessions on Saturday have been a little more relaxed in recent years ... but not at the 25th Cubs Convention. After Lou Piniella and his coaching staff fielded more questions and revealed a couple of interesting tidbits, Crane Kenney and the Cubs Business Management dealt with a variety of topics ...

Lou Piniella, Jim Hendry and Randy Bush followed the Ricketts family on Saturday morning. Bob Sirott and Dave Eanet hosted the Meet Cubs Baseball Management session.

The Cubs are not done adding players from what Jim Hendry indicated on Saturday morning. Hendry said the Cubs are not looking to add a free agent starter but a right-handed reliever to setup Carlos Marmol.

From Greg Maddux to Marlon Byrd to Geovany Soto's weight loss to Rich Harden and Piniella's starting seven plus the Cubs untouchable prospects, there were a lot of topics discussed with the Cubs Baseball Management ...

Saturday at the Cubs Convention is filled with one session after the other ... and the 25th annual gathering did not break from the norm.

The first session on Day Two of the Convention was Meet the Owners hosted by Len Kasper. The Ricketts family discussed a variety of topics from Jim Hendry to the minor league system to adding night games at Wrigley to improving the Cubs' clubhouse and Wrigley 2014.

For one weekend a year the Chicago Hilton is turned blue. This year, however, it is just a little different. The Cubs have new owners and there was renewed optimism once again at the first day of the Cubs Convention.

Familiar faces, with some new ones mixed in, packed every square foot of the grand hotel to kickoff the upcoming baseball season ... and of course, Cubs past and present joined in to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original fan fest.

From the exhibit halls to the Opening Ceremonies to Sports Central Live everyone was talking Cubs and dreaming of what could happen in Twenty-Ten ...

As Belinda Carlisle once opined (oh yes, I am going there), Heaven Is a Place on Earth. And while Kevin Costner might claim it's Iowa, the Chicago Hilton and Towers does its best to displace Cubs fans from reality for one weekend a year. And that weekend begins today.

Long-time CCO readers know that I have written a column each of the last three Januarys about the Convention, and some know that the 2006 Convention was the first event I covered for the CCO. The convention was my beginning at ChicagoCubsOnline and as Harry used to say, it is the unofficial start to the baseball season. So, let's great ready Cubs fans.

The schedule for the 25th Annual Cubs Convention was released on Monday. The three-day event begins on Friday at the Hilton Chicago. Cubs past and present will be in attendance as well as the newest Cubs, Marlon Byrd and Rudy Jaramillo.

The Meet the Owners session on Saturday morning with the Ricketts family should be one of the more interesting, and well attended, sessions of the weekend. Tom Ricketts is scheduled to be part of Sports Central Live as well on Friday night.

The "Unofficial Opening Day" is just around the corner ...

Details of the 2010 Cubs Convention have begun surfacing with only six days until the annual event at the Chicago Hilton ... the 25th Cubs Convention kicks off on Friday, January 15.

Here is a compiled list of attendees from several sources as well as a portion of the schedule. The full schedule and attendee list should be released later in the weekend ... but here is what is known at this point. The CCO will update when more information becomes available.

The 24th Annual Cubs Convention concluded on Sunday with two final sessions, "Meet Cubs Business Management" and "Down on the Farm"....but it did not go out without a bang.

Moments after the Convention officially ended at 1:00pm, news surfaced that the Cubs traded once sure thing and five-tool prospect Felix Pie to the Baltimore Orioles for two pitching prospects....lefty Garrett Olson and Class-A righty Henry Williamson. Oneri Fleita discussed Felix Pie, among other prospects, during the "Down on the Farm" session...so more on Pie later on.

The annual gathering was much of the same as it has been in recent years....with one small exception, it seemed like there was more people packed into the hotel and most were more focused on obtaining autographs than attending the sessions.

At times it was very difficult to go from one session to the other, mainly due to the autograph hawks camped out in the lobby and the vendor areas were not much better. While numbers for the weekend vary from report to report, it certainly appeared they figured out a way to sell more passes for the weekend event.

The highlight of the last day was "Down on the Farm" with Tim Wilken and Oneri Fleita but "Meet Cubs Business Management" featured a lot of useful information, including a possible celebration of the number thirty-one this summer at Wrigley.....

Day two at the Cubs Convention can turn into information overload. The entire day is filled with one session after the other beginning at 9:00am.

Saturday began with the extremely popular Meet Cubs Baseball Management with Jim Hendry, Randy Bush and Crane Kenney. Lou Piniella was absent from the session with the flu...the Cubs' skipper has been fighting a viral infection all week.

The highlights from Saturday were numerous. From Jim Hendry in the morning session to Crane Kenney answering tough questions in "Who's the Boss?" to Milton Bradley sticking around for nearly 30 minutes after "Welcome to Wrigley" to "The Magic of '84" to Lou Brock to a packed room for "Making History" minus Geovany Soto.