Cubmania: It’s Already Reaching a Fever Pitch : Season ticket sales have more than tripled, exhibition games are sold out as snowbirds flock to the desert; even team workouts attract thousands.

It is the spring of the great migration.

From Chicago and scattered points along the WGN cable network, the snowbirds have flocked to the Valley of the Sun to be close to their once again beloved Cubbies, champions of the National League East.

They are seen clogging the ticket window at Ho Ho Kam Park, expanded during the winter from 6,000 to 8,000 seats in anticipation of this phenomenon. A recent intrasquad game there drew 4,000. All box and most reserved seats for the 16 exhibition games were sold in advance. The Cubs held back 2,300-unreserved tickets to sell on the day of each game. The box office opens at 10 a.m. The snowbirds, people who traditionally migrate to the south each winter to escape the cold, have been in line as early as 6 a.m.

They were also seen at the nearby Fitch Park training complex, where the Cubs were based before the exhibition schedule began. Some were there by 8 each morning, seeking pictures and autographs as the Cubs arrived for their 10 o’clock workouts.

By 10, the parking areas were filled and a crowd estimated at more than 1,000 lined the fences, filled the small bleachers and clogged the pedestrian lanes between the fields.

It was only at Fitch Park, one of the eight Cactus League training sites, that a public-address system was employed for the workouts. Bob Ibach, the public-relations director, got on the microphone each morning, providing insights into the rituals the Cubs were performing, explaining what tickets were still available and plugging bargains at the souvenir stand.

It was only at Fitch Park that the zealots besieged the souvenir stand, responding as if $6.50 for a media guide, $15 for a child’s T-shirt and $5-to-$8 caps represented bargains indeed.

It was only at Fitch Park that the players seemed annoyed when they couldn’t get to their daily grind, the route being blocked by the swarming fans.

Rick Sutcliffe, besieged and surrounded by autograph seekers as he attempted to walk between fields, turned to a reporter and said, “We draw more fans for these practices than we did for most games in Cleveland.”

Cub broadcaster Steve Stone, a former Cy Young Award winner and Scottsdale restaurant owner, shook his head as he found space to light a cigar, then said:

“I was on a Baltimore team that won 202 games in 1979 and ‘80, but then we went to spring training and played in a half-empty stadium. The only person who watched our workouts was trainer Ralph Salvon.

“You’d have to say this is the result of winning and the impact of the cable, but I still can’t believe a thousand or so people standing around and watching a group of players standing at second base, receiving instruction in how to run the bases.”

If they haven’t forgotten, the snowbirds have obviously forgiven the Cubs for losing the last three games of the best-of-five championship series with San Diego after having won the first two.

The frustration is something the reborn Cubs apparently don’t want to forget.

Dallas Green, architect of the renaissance as club president and general manager, conducted a team meeting with Manager Jim Frey soon after the full squad reported.

Said Green: “Jimmy and I told them that we were proud of what they had done as individuals and as a team, but reminded them that the only thing that counts is the World Series.

“We told them that 1984 is over and done with and that they would have to prove themselves all over again. We won but we didn’t win, and we won’t accept that.

“We told them that every time they lose a game it will be said they’re lazy, fat and complacent. Just don’t give people a reason to say it when the season is over. We’re proud of how fast we’ve come, but we haven’t cleared that last hurdle.”

The Cubs seemed to have already gotten the message. Every regular was here even before the pitchers and catchers were scheduled to report.

Third baseman Ron Cey checked in almost a week ahead of the batterymen and found that he was the last regular to arrive.

“It was amazing,” he said. “I was five days early and two days late.”

Frey has heard the questions so often now that he’s incorporated them as the opening routine of all interviews.

“I know what you want to ask,” he said with a smile, sitting in his Fitch Park office. “Can we do it again? Can Shawon Dunston play shortstop? What about complacency?

“My answers are . . . yes, I don’t know and I don’t know what the bleep you’re talking about.

“I mean, I don’t think we have too much to be complacent about when we didn’t win the championship and didn’t get to the World Series.

“We had a good year but we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to accomplish. If anything, the frustration and disappointment we experienced at the end should give us the motivation to go out and do it better.”

Frey is the only manager ever to lead two teams to division titles in his first year at their helm. He did it with Kansas City in 1980, then with the Cubs in ’84.

The North Side search for an NL Championship now spans 39 years, but Frey’s Cubs had the National League’s best record (96-65) just a year after Lee Elia’s Cubs had one of the worst (71-91).

Pivotal, of course, was the March acquisition of left fielder Gary Mathews and center fielder Bob Denier in a trade with Philadelphia, followed by the May and June trades for Dennis Eckersley of Boston and Sutcliffe of Cleveland.

The Cubs went on to score more runs than any National League team since the ’79 Pirates and become the first NL team to have six players with 80 or more RBIs since the ’69 Reds.

A rebuilt pitching staff produced the club’s lowest ERA (3.75) since 1973, was fifth in the league in complete games, first in fewest walks allowed and second in saves.

The NL MVP Award went to second baseman Ryne Sandberg, the Cy Young to Sutcliffe, the executive-of-the-year to Green and the manager-of-the-year to Frey. Frey does not expect Sutcliffe to go 16-1 again but does believe the Cubs can be even better than last year--if only because of the availability of Sutcliffe and Eckersley from the start and a winter trade with the Yankees for a much needed left-hander, versatile Ray Fontenot.

“We lost 11 straight games last spring and it may have been a blessing in that it highlighted our weaknesses and may have forced us to make some moves earlier than we expected,” Frey said.

“When we made the trade for Mathews and Denier I thought we could be a .500 club and that a lot of people would settle for that. When we got Eckersley and Sutcliffe I thought we could win it, which we did.

“I now think we can play an entire season with the consistency that we played the last three months (the Cubs were 54-31 after June). I don’t know if we’ll win more than 96 games, but we’re capable of winning a lot. We can now put a good pitcher out there every day and we can score runs.

“We’re also basically a young club. We have a first baseman (Leon Durham), second baseman (Sandberg), center fielder (Denier), right fielder (Keith Moreland), catcher (Jody Davis) and three starting pitchers (Sutcliffe, Steve Trout and Scott Sanderson) who are still coming into their prime.”

Mathews (34) and Cey (36) are the only regulars over 30, providing Dunston, 22, unseats Larry Bowa, 39, as the shortstop. Dick Ruthven, 34, is the only starting pitcher over 30. Bullpen ace Lee Smith, who has won 77 of his last 90 save-chances, is 27 and expected to be stronger after having knee surgery this winter.

The only significant roster decision involves the battle between Dunston, who made 56 minor league errors last year, and Bowa, who hit .223.

Only St. Louis made fewer errors than the Cubs last year, but part of that stems from the lack of left-side range by the sure-handed but sure-slow Cey and Bowa. The erratic Dunston offers speed and a promising bat.

But Bowa, believing the Cubs have already decided to move him out, has questioned Dunston’s ability to play big-league shortstop, telling Chicago Sun Times columnist Ron Rapoport, “ . . . if he’s going to make 70 errors, he better hit .320. If I’d hit .260 last year, he wouldn’t even be on the club.”

Bowa said he would accept whatever role the Cubs give him, but that it appears certain the club will employ him as a late-inning replacement for Dunston.

“I don’t think he even needs a good spring to play,” Bowa told Rapoport. “I think he needs only a mediocre spring. I think he’d have to have a disastrous spring not to play.”

Frey said the decision will not be made until late March. Either way, it doesn’t figure to diminish the Cubs’ new stature or enthusiasm.

“We may have been the surprise of the division last year, but I don’t think we’ll catch anyone by surprise this year,” Cey said. “We have to be the favorite or the co-favorite, at least.

“The playoffs were unfortunate, but we still did a lot of things that haven’t been done in Chicago in a long time and we can use that as a positive reinforcement. We’re hungry to finish the job and we’re stronger than we were a year ago.”

Now, only Durham, Davis and Smith remain from the club Green inherited in the winter of 1981.

The former Philadelphia farm director and field manager has aggressively provided his fellow major-league executives with a re-education in the art of trading, doing it at a time when most executives say it is impossible to trade because of complicated contracts and interfering agents.

Green’s knowledge of the Philadelphia system and the direction it was taking enabled him to heist Sandberg, Mathews, Bowa, Denier, Moreland and Ruthven for only a modest price. Sutcliffe was obtained for the proven Mel Hall and the promising Joe Carter. A Chicago favorite, Bill Buckner, left in the Eckersley trade.

“I didn’t expect to win a division title in three years,” Green said, “but I don’t have any patience when it comes to winning.

“I had a five-year contract and I could have sat on my butt. I could have taken those five years and said, ‘Hey, we’re coming, we’re making progress.’ You can look at it on a long-term basis or say ‘What the hell’ and roll the dice.

“I mean, if you’re afraid to make a mistake in baseball, you can pack it in. I’ve always been a dice roller and so has the Philly organization. I suspect it rubbed off.”

Standing in a corner of the Fitch Park complex, Green paused to accept a fan’s congratulations for the Cubs’ success, then said:

“A lot of clubs have been built from within, but when I got here and looked at the farm system, I felt it would take too long to go that way.

“So we traded some people who were going to need two or three years to develop for some people who were already there. It’s not the way I would have preferred to go, but now we have a pretty good club, now we can say, ‘OK, let’s develop some consistency and some stability, let’s build for the future.’

“I mean, this is the first spring since I’ve been here that I can even consider using the word ‘set’ in connection with our roster. It’s kind of a neat feeling.”

It could have just as quickly fallen apart, however, if Green and the parent Chicago Tribune Co. had not made a commitment to keep Sutcliffe, Eckersley and Trout. Each went through the re-entry draft as a free agent, weighed a variety of other offers, then re-signed with the Cubs.

Sutcliffe will get $8.8 million for five years, Trout $4.5 for five and Eckersley $2.5 for three. The Sutcliffe, Trout, Eckersley, Sanderson and Ruthven rotation will be paid $4.5 million in 1985 alone.

“I didn’t make the rules and I don’t like the rules,” Green said. “I also didn’t start this (financial) war and I’m not sure I’ll be the one to end it.

“We simply made a commitment to our fans to build and maintain a competitive team, and in this case we were willing to pay the price. I mean, I’d worked hard to get these people and gave up some good young players in the process. We made it clear to everyone in baseball that we were going to keep them, and we stayed out of the draft to do it.

“I can’t believe that we caught hell from some fans for paying the salaries and raising ticket prices, but these were probably the same fans who used to give the Wrigley family hell for losing players by being cheap. How can you have your cake and eat it, too?”

Durham found out. The buck stopped with the Bull. His salary negotiation went to an arbitrator, who ruled in favor of the Cubs’ offer of $800,000 rather than Durham’s bid for $1.1 million. It got nasty. The Cubs’ brought up the first baseman’s key error in Game 5 of the playoffs. It was as if his 23 homers and 96 RBIs were erased by that mistake.

“I think that was the worst thing they could have done,” Durham said when the arbitration was over.

Said Green: “We fought Leon Durham because we don’t think he’s a $1-million a year player--yet. Rick Sutcliffe is.”

Said Durham: “I’m not bitter, but I’m playing now for the fans, not management. I’d rather have their respect anyway.”

The Fitch Park snowbirds were in a frenzy. Cub broadcaster Harry Caray, the Mayor of Rush Street, had just arrived in a blue sweater and blue and white striped shorts.

“The mayor’s here,” a self-appointed heralder shouted. Caray was quickly surrounded by pens and cameras.

“Holy cow,” he said, feigning annoyance but loving every minute of it. He spotted a reporter and said, “Let the commissioner know about this. Let the commissioner know that all the cable has done is make fans all over the country.”

The reference was to Peter Ueberroth’s attempt to regulate the cable networks by forcing their respective clubs to indemnify the others, a subject Green refused to discuss because of legal ramifications.

The WGN reach is such that the Central American country of Belize staged a Cubs Day last week, inviting Green to be the honored guest. He sent Mathews instead, though Mathews said, “I don’t like to go to a place I can’t spell.”

Green stayed in Mesa, writing letters to the other Cactus League teams begging them to hold down pass lists for the besieged games at Ho Ho Kam Park.

The snowbirds have already bought 70 box seats for next spring’s games there. They have already collected the 10,000 free rosters and bumper stickers that the Cubs planned to distribute throughout the spring. The fever is such that:

--Chicago’s four major TV stations are beaming back live camp reports three times a day, the 11 p.m. spot often delivered by chilled reporters in the dark of an empty Ho Ho Kam Park.

--The Associated Press bureau in Chicago sent Joe Mooshil to his first spring camp. Mooshil has been the AP’s top Chicago baseball writer for 32 years.

--The Cubs have sold 23,000 season tickets after selling only 7,500 last year.

The glow, of course, can dim. The betrayed fan who feels his passion has been misplaced is quick to display his bitterness. The young Cubs who have not been through this before may feel the pressure of having to duplicate their 1984 statistics, of proving their success was genuine.

Sutcliffe, for one, understands this. He knows that anything less than 16-1 may not be accepted. He knows that the big contract is both a blessing and burden. He believes, however, that what the Cubs have going is special and wanted to remain part of it even more than he had always wanted to pitch for his hometown Kansas City Royals, who offered him the chance at comparable money.

“I found out last year that there is more to baseball than having a good ERA and record,” he said. “I found out how much fun it is to pitch in a pennant race. I became as much of a Cub fan as the people sitting in the stands. I liked getting as many letters in a day as I got in a season at Cleveland. I liked being excited about going to the park and being cheered when I walked to the bullpen to warm up.

“In the end, it was something I couldn’t walk away from, and that’s tough to say for a guy who had always dreamed of pitching at home and who had the chance. I know that if I lose a game people will say they wished I had stayed home, but I don’t intend to lose very many, though all I can promise is my best effort.

“I expect a lot out of myself, but the only real pressure is what other people put on you. The team scored six runs per game for me last year and a lot will depend again on how it plays. I can’t drive in 100 runs or run down a 400-foot fly. I mean, the contract won’t change me as a pitcher or person but I know it will in some people’s eyes.

“I saw how it can be after I failed to win the fifth playoff game. I got letters from people who said I now owed it to Chicago to come back, as if I had won or lost by myself. It’s a team effort, but people tend to put it all on one player or another.”

Now, weaving his way through the snowbirds, Sutcliffe said that what he remembers most about 1984 is that fifth game. He said it turned the Cy Young into something of an empty honor, convincing him that his career will be incomplete until he wins a World Series ring.

Sutcliffe said he thought about that during his contract odyssey, about how the team has developed and the atmosphere surrounding it. He stood amid this Arizona slice of the Windy City and said, “I simply decided that it would mean more to me to get it done there.”

‘We had a good year but we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to accomplish. If anything, the frustration and disappointment we experienced at the end should give us the motivation to go out and do it better.’