Cub promotes Illinois' baseball program

He wears Cubbie blue these days, but once upon a time, Randy Wells dreamed of wearing Illinois' orange and blue.

His brother, Forry, played baseball and football for the Illini from 1991 to '94, and the current Cubs right-hander was a regular on the UI campus.

"It's been part of my upbringing, and I spent a lot of time there watching football and baseball games and fell in love with the place when I was a kid," Wells said. "I always wanted to go there, set my sights on going there and it didn't work out for me, but I never lost that love or passion for the school."

For one weekend, at least, Wells can consider himself an Illini.

The 27-year-old Belleville native, who played two years at Southwestern Illinois College before being drafted by the Cubs in 2002, will serve as the keynote speaker at the Illinois Hot Stove Baseball Banquet on Saturday at the I Hotel.

"Making it to the big leagues and having some success, (Illinois baseball coach) Dan (Hartleb) kind of reached out to my charity and donated a bunch of stuff," said Wells, who hosts an event benefiting juvenile diabetes every year. "He came out and played in my golf outing. He asked me if I'd be interested in doing it and I said, 'Sure.' "

Wells' appearance in Champaign will come about two weeks before he is scheduled to report to spring training in Arizona ahead of his second full season in the major leagues. He finished sixth in the National League Rookie of the Year voting after posting a 12-10 record with a 3.05 ERA for the North Siders, who missed the postseason in 2009.

His transition to getting big league hitters out has been easier than the transition of molding his Cardinal-loving friends and family into Cubs fans.

"When I signed with the Cubs in '02, I switched pretty easily," Wells said. "It was more difficult for my family. All of my friends are big Cardinals fans, but they all say now they are Cubs fans every fifth day."

It wasn't difficult to switch his allegiances because the Tribune Co. was signing his large paychecks. Starting this season, however, the Tribune signature will be replaced by one from the Ricketts family, which acquired the club after the 2009 season.

"At the Cubs Convention, I got to meet them and hang with them and sit there and talk, and I think it's wonderful," Wells said. "They're great people, first and foremost. They're great to be around, really pleasant people, interesting and fun with great ideas. To be fans of the team you own before you even buy them is huge. For someone to have their livelihood on the line, this isn't just a huge corporation that owns a team and put a team out there to see what happens. This is their livelihood. They invested their fortune in the Cubs. They put it on the line, and they're gonna do everything it takes to make us a better team."

The Ricketts family and general manager Jim Hendry have had a busy offseason. They shipped troubled outfielder Milton Bradley to Seattle and added a pair of big bats in Marlon Byrd and Xavier Nady.

As usual, expectations are high for the Cubs to win their first World Series since 1908.

"Everybody's just kind of relieved to be getting close and ready to go, to put last year behind us," Wells said. "We got rid of some guys that maybe caused a distraction. I don't know if that was the reason we didn't do so well, but that's what the fans point at, so we'll see. It should be a pretty fun year, though."

Comments

Add a Comment