Cubs Considering Spring Training Swap

Cubs could move to Naples, Fla. in 2012

True story: The name "Hohokam" means "those who vanished" in the language of an ancient Native American tribe. In 2012, it could just as easily refer to the Chicago Cubs.

The Cubs have played their spring training baseball at Hohokam Park in Mesa, Ariz. for years now, but a new possibility has emerged. A Naples, Fla.-based group attempting to steal the Cubs away from their desert home has met twice with new owner Tom Ricketts and Cubs chairman Crane Kenney, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The duo has to decide whether to act an escape clause in the Hohokam contract. The Cubs are currently slated to stay in Mesa until 2016, but could leave in 2012 if they chose to pursue the escape route. That option would cost the team about $4.2 million, which equates roughly to about 70 games worth of feckless Milton Bradley at-bats.

It would be something of a drastic shift for Cubs fans, many of whom make their visits to Arizona for spring training a yearly tradition. But Naples, Fla. is a beautiful community enviable retired seniors; we have a feeling most Cubs fans wouldn't be too disappointed.

Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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