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Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts remains determined to work with Mayor Rahm Emanuel on renovations to Wrigley Field despite a controversy involving Rickets' father that drew the ire of Emanuel last week.

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As Kerry Wood walked off the mound for the last time on Friday, he was already contemplating his post-playing days future.

“I want to stay with the team and help the guys if I can,” Wood said. “I know I enjoy teaching some of the things I have learned and I’m already close to the guys.”

Before signing again with the Cubs in 2011 Wood had a sit down with team chairman Tom Ricketts. In that meeting Ricketts told the iconic Cub pitcher that there always be a place for him and his family in the organization. The job description was left unspecified, however Wood was told that this would not be a handout or token offering.

Wood’s talents are many and a front office or broadcasting job seem possible. For now, this ultimate baseball lifer wants to be there for Cubs manager Dale Sveum and his staff.

“I want to be a part of this team and organization for a long time,” Wood said in his postgame press conference. “Baseball was the one thing I knew how to do and now (that part ) is over.”

Wood and his wife, Sarah, are hard-working parents and serious fundraisers for numerous charities, including the old and soon-to-be-opened Children’s Memorial Hospital, and it appears his future will always have a connection to the Chicago Cubs and the fan base that has loved him from Day One in 1995.

The Chicago Police Department said Thursday the investigation into sexual assault allegations against Chicago Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro is ongoing, and Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said he hopes the matter is resolved "shortly."

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MESA, Ariz. -- Tom Ricketts finally has the management team he wants for the Chicago Cubs in place for the next decade. Beginning his third season as the club’s chairman, the Nebraska native appears to be on top of his game as a business man and baseball executive.

Ricketts handled media questions in an easy and in controlled manner on Friday, answering questions when he felt it was what he wanted to do. In the past, it seemed that Ricketts would hesitate and force an answer as if he had an obligation to reply. That is no longer the case. Three times he was asked about Starlin Castro's ongoing off-the-field problems and three times he adroitly deferred to Castro’s agent and representatives, showing the awareness of a long-time owner.

Ricketts loves the team’s new “Cub Way” direction Theo Epstein has started for the franchise. “You do like to hear the ‘Cub Way,’” Ricketts said. “What we are doing is putting everything down on paper and everyone is signing off on it, everyone is working together.”

Certainly, that wasn’t the case over the last couple of seasons on the north side.

It’s refreshing for Cub fans to know that the team’s owners are responsive to the point of returning emails and phone calls on a regular basis. In fact, Ricketts walks the ballpark before home games, shaking hands and signing baseballs.

“Everyone buys in. Everyone is accountable,” Ricketts said. “I think that’s a big part of the ‘Cub Way.’”

Cub fans have three baseball executives in place, as Ricketts now will sit in with president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer on both business and baseball decisions, something he avoided for some reason during the Jim Hendry regime.

“I think we have made some changes that will pay off in the short run and in the long run with a team that is going to be competitive every single year,” Ricketts said. “I feel great about it.”

So will the fan base when it starts to see results.

Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts talks about the new "Cubs Way," his expectations for the season and whether the Cubs will be playing somewhere other than Wrigley Field.

MESA, Ariz. -- Since his first spring with the Chicago Cubs in 1996, Kerry Wood has been a focal point for both fans and media. However, this time around he might be fighting off father time and a new management style.

The Cub player with the longest relationship with the team is waiting to hear all about the “Cub Way” that new the management team has put down as the holy grail for being a Cub in the future.

“I am excited to hear about it,” Wood said. “I just don’t know a lot about it yet.”

What Wood does know is that he no longer has the ear of the top Cub executives other than the Ricketts family. Wood almost went elsewhere this offseason before team chairman Tom Ricketts intervened at the last minute and the club re-signed the 35-year-old veteran to a one-year, $3 million dollar contract on Jan. 13 at the Cubs Convention.

After meeting with team president Theo Epstein in early November, Wood has not had a conversation with either Epstein or general manager Jed Hoyer since that time.

Regardless of that, the popular Cub icon is ready to compete in 2012. Wood missed the last two weeks of the 2011 season with a left knee tear, having surgery to repair it on Sept. 30.

“The knee is great,” Wood said. “I am 100 percent, no problems and it has been that way for a month or so. I’ve been throwing off the mound for a while now and feel great.”

Wood may be going into his last season, but he is very optimistic about the new group of players that will comprise the 25-man roster in 2012.

“It’s good to see a change, you get kind of watered down with the same thing over and over again,” Wood said. “It’s Groundhog Day, nothing changes. So it’s good to see a change and now I’m looking forward to moving down the street [to HoHoKam Park] and playing.”

When he chooses to retire, Wood will be a part of the organization going forward, according to an agreement that he has with Ricketts.

Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts and his siblings spoke to an auditorium full of Cubs fans at a family seminar during the Cubs Convention on Saturday.

Afterwards, he spoke to reporters on many different subjects.

Ricketts on the much-maligned president of business operations Crane Kenney, who he insists is an intregal part of the business plan:

“Crane does a terrific job,” Ricketts said. “He’s done a great job on the business side of the organization. I feel that’s going in the right direction and with Theo [Epstein] and Jed [Hoyer] in there, I feel baseball ops are going in the right direction. Those things have to work hand-in-glove. They are really two sides of the same coin. They have to work together. I’m optimistic that we have a great future on both sides.”

Ricketts on Kenney making the first call to Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino in order to interview Epstein: “It turned out [Kenney] had a conversation with Larry that was prescheduled. It was just a coincidence they talked. I told [Kenney], if you talk to Larry, let him know [we’d like permission to talk to Epstein].

Ricketts on Starlin Castro, who was questioned by Chicago police over allegations of sexual assault: “From our standpoint, Starlin and his advisors put out a statement on Friday and it’s really not appropriate for us to really talk much beyond that. We just hope it gets resolved as quickly as possible and everybody moves forward.”

Ricketts on Epstein-mania: “Obviously there’s a lot of excitement and a lot of optimism. People are excited about the direction on the baseball side and I think that helped us with season-ticket renewals, which were very, very, very high. I think it helps, but there’s no way to quantify it. The feeling is people seem to want to be a part of this new team that should be headed in the right direction.”

Ricketts on Epstein and Hoyer: “We have a fresh perspective and they look at things a little differently than maybe Jim [Hendry] would have. They have brought in a handful of guys and they talk openly about decisions and with all those guys putting their collective thoughts together, they’re going to make some good calls. Theo is the ultimate decision maker, but those guys are always talking about players. They work hard. They are here early and they are here late.”

Ricketts on whether the previous front office was too small for major league standards: “I don’t know about that. But I think we are benefitting from fresh energy and fresh perspective from these guys.”

Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said Saturday that he’d continue to be supportive of his front office if they thought moving a veteran player would be best for the team’s future.

“First of all, it’s really up to the baseball guys to decide who fits on the team,” Ricketts said at the Cubs Convention. “If there is a player they think doesn’t fit and they think it’s better for the team to move him, then I’ll support it 100%, even if that means eating some salary.”

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Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts acknowledged on Saturday that the front office could have handled the Kerry Wood signing in a more timely fashion.

The 34-year-old veteran pitcher told the media on Friday that he was 25 minutes away from going for a physical with another team, with which he had agreed to a deal in principle. That’s when the Cubs closed in and finished off the contract.

“I’m not sure why the timing ended up the way it did,” Ricketts said at the team’s annual convention. “We probably could have had that conversation a month ago. My gut would just say that [Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and GM Jed Hoyer] were focused on everything else that was going on. We probably could have done it a little sooner.”

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CHICAGO -- Multiple high-ranking, totally trustworthy Major League sources confirmed Tuesday that Theo Epstein is the new President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs.

“I’ve waited a few weeks to say this, but it truly feels great to be a Cub today,” said a source close to Epstein.

Oh wait, that was Epstein. He actually said those words to begin his introductory press conference at Wrigley Field.

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CHICAGO -- On his way out of town, Theo Epstein published a very classy thank-you letter to the rabid Boston Red Sox fans in the Boston Globe. He addressed it to "Red Sox Nation."

So that's how I'll begin yet another column/blog post/diary entry advising Epstein on how to handle his new life as President of Being an Awesome Baseball Genius for the Chicago Cubs. There is no Cubs Nation, no Cubbie Exceptionalism.

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The worst-kept secret in baseball is finally, officially out in the open. The Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs issued a joint statement Friday night announcing that Theo Epstein has resigned from his post as Boston's general manager to become the Cubs' president of baseball operations.

The move is "effective immediately," according to the statement, although the teams won't hold news conferences until Tuesday, the next off day in the World Series, when the Cubs will presumably introduce Epstein in Chicago, while Red Sox assistant GM Ben Cherington is expected to be named Epstein's successor in Boston.

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CHICAGO -- One thing you might have noticed early about Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts is that he likes to wear an ID badge around Wrigley Field.

It was cute, at first, because he was the new, fresh-faced owner of this maddening team, and it showed a Midwestern humility that is part and parcel of the image he wants to exude. Wearing an ID badge when you're the owner says, "I follow the rules too. We're all pulling on the same rope here. Want a bison dog?"

Now, as his second season comes to a merciful ending, Ricketts can officially take off the badge. Everyone across baseball knows he's the boss.

Ricketts started slow, preferring to take stock of his new team before making any drastic changes. It goes against the prevailing wisdom of the crowds, but it was the right thing to do, even if it cost the team some goodwill and certainly some wins.

But he proved true ownership of the not-so-lovable losers by firing general manager Jim Hendry, the man who ran the actual team. And then again last week, when he re-upped vice president of player personnel Oneri Fleita before hiring a new GM.

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A meeting with scouting director Tim Wilken is next on Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts’ to-do list before he hires his next general manager.

Ricketts already extended the contract of vice president of player personnel Oneri Fleita for four years, including a good-sized raise, in order to keep him from taking a job with the Detroit Tigers.

According to MLB sources, Wilken will meet with Ricketts over the weekend of Sept. 16 to discuss the state of the scouting department and his current contract status.

As it stands, Wilken has one year remaining on his deal, the same as Fleita before his extension last week.

Part of the Cubs’ recent success in developing talent has been directly linked to Wilken and his scouts signing better players for the system.

Darwin Barney, Andrew Cashner, Casey Coleman, Jeff Samardzija, Tyler Colvin and farm-system jewel Brett Jackson are just a few of the Cubs’ signings since Wilken took over the amateur and pro scouting job in December of 2005.

Before joining the Cubs, Wilken had a long, successful career in scouting and development with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays. A sample size of players he was directly involved in the signing and development of includes Roy Halladay, Shawn Green, Michael Young and Vernon Wells.

Like Fleita, Wilken will have a number of teams interested in his services. If the Cubs decide to make a further commitment to Wilken, the next general manager will have two vital positions in place when he takes over. There will, however, be some flexibility for Ricketts and his next general manager to make changes to those spots in the near future. Fleita’s deal (and a possible one for Wilkens) will be structured creatively with buyouts and options to benefit both the team and the executives.

It’s possible that some GM candidates may initially balk at having both a minor league director and scouting director in place. However, Ricketts is staunchly supportive of the current and future value of Fleita and Wilken in the Cubs organization.

When Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts made the decision to give vice president of player personnel Oneri Fleita a four-year contract, it definitely came as a surprise.

Not because of the job that Fleita has done, but that Ricketts extended a key piece of the front office prior to finding a general manager. It’s possible the decision could hinder Ricketts’ pursuit of a well-established, top of the line GM like Theo Epstein or Andrew Friedman.

“This is more about the staff that’s here and keeping some continuity,” Fleita said. “Obviously when the next general manager comes in, hopefully we’re gonna serve him well.”

Whether keeping Fleita around prevents a big-name candidate from accepting the general manager’s position won’t be known until one is named later this year. Even then, we likely won’t know if Fleita’s presence affected the hire. However, there is no doubt that Ricketts is taking a risk by committing long term to Fleita before completing his search.

Fleita and Ricketts developed a strong connection over the past two seasons. Clearly Ricketts felt compelled to make a strong push to keep Fleita from leaving for another organization, in particular the Detroit Tigers, who were believed to have a serious interest in Fleita.

“At the end of the day, the truth of it is it was a match between Tom and I, the family, and something I believe in,” Fleita said. “They’ve been giving support to sign players internationally this year that I’ve never had. (Cubs scouting director) Tim (Wilken) was given great support to go out and do what he did in the draft. This is an opportunity now to work for a great family, the Ricketts family. We’ve been given resources to go out and compete, that makes it a lot of fun for everybody involved.”

Looking at both international signings and the bonuses handed out in this year’s amateur draft, the Cubs spent nearly $20 million, far and away the most they’ve invested in such signings. When Ricketts came to the Cubs, he stressed how important building a strong farm system was to him and with the money they’ve spent the past few months, he’s started to execute that plan.

“I think Tom and his family have made the vision,” Fleita said. “They bought 50 acres of land in the Dominican Republic . . . we’re gonna build a new facility in Arizona, it’s exciting to be part of the design. There are a lot of great things that have happened. So the vision is very bright, it’s exciting.”

Fleita added that it was great to be able to tell his scouts that they could be aggressive in attempting to sign some of the players who were expected to be difficult to get in the fold. Shawon Dunston Jr. and Dillon Maples were among the surprise signings by the Cubs, as many expected both were strong college commits.

“These scouts spend a lot of time on the road, they’re away from their families,” Fleita said. “If they come across a player that they have a gut feel on, to tell them, ‘Yeah go for it,’ that was exciting. They feel like they’re contributing to the organization, that’s what it’s all about.”