Lots of Ricketts Talk on the Radio & Grabow Update

Some more good Ricketts links, Q&As, videos, and interviews.

• Tom Ricketts on NPR
• Entire Press Conference from Ricketts taking over the Cubs
• Ricketts joined Boers and Bernstein Friday
• Paul Sullivan joined Mully and Hanley on the Score today.
• Mike Murphy talked Cubs on the Danny Mac show last week.
• Crane Kenney and Tom Ricketts were on Talkin' Baseball with Bruce Levine Saturday.
• Sun-Times Q&A with Tom.
• Cubs.com Q&A with Ricketts.
• CBS 2 News Video, Tom takes Cubbie Questions

Some other Cubs notes:

• Bruce Levine on John Grabow: "The two sides are talking about a two-year deal for anywhere between a total of $6.5 million and $7.5 million. Grabow's people would like a vesting option for a third year added to the contract. "
• Neither Kevin Gregg nor Rich Harden is expected to return to the Cubs.
• The Cubs will have rights to negotiate with Harden, Gregg, Johnson, Fox, and Grabow until 10 days after the World Series, when they will become free agents and free to negotiate with any team.
• The Rangers are not ruling out the possibility of Milton Bradley returning to Texas.
• Carrie Muskat said in her Inbox that the Cubs are interested in Aroldis Chapman but he doesn't fit their budget.
• Phil Rodgers, on the other hand, says the Cubs "have the resources to compete for Chapman."
• TCR takes a look at Mike Cameron as a Cub offseason target.
• Andres Blanco still has to show Lou Piniella he can handle big league pitching according to Cubs.com.
• There seems to be very little chance of the Cubs staying at HoHoKam Park for Spring Training.

The Cubs have announced the following crowd-management employees for their 2009 awards:

• Ushers of the Year- Jan Awker and David Hamann
• Parker of the Year- Leslie Marie Huff
• Crows Control of the Year- Fred Pearson
• Supervisor of the Year- Joe Carter
• Rookie of the Year- Cindy Roy
• ADCDE Award- Jennifer Aparicio

What do Cubs do in the offseason to stay in shape? Vineline asked!

• Kosuke Fukudome- "I'll just relax for 7-10 days then start walking, then jogging, and then work up to running. I'll begin weight training, then start hitting."
• Jeff Samardzija- "I'll work out 4 times per week with weights and conditioning. Then I'll start throwing to get stretched out."
• Aramis Ramirez- "First, I will take a month off. After that, I'll be in the weight room at the gym 3 or 4 times a week and then start doing all the baseball stuff."
• Ryan Dempster- "I'll be running a lot. I have a personal trainer, and we will do a lot of agility training and some hill training also."

That's it for now, I'll keep you posted on Everything Cubs as always!