CHICAGO -- Theo Epstein believes the furor over the Chicago Cubs' new team mascot, Clark the Cub bear, will die down over time.

Clark is the first official Cubs mascot in their modern history. Courtesy of Chicago Cubs

"It'll be a blip instead of a cacophony or Clark-cophony," the Cubs president of baseball operations said jokingly at the start of the Cubs Convention on Friday.

Clark is the first team mascot in modern history. After his unveiling on Monday, social media voiced a strong negative opinion about his creation.

Epstein says some of that is due to the state of the franchise right now. The Cubs have lost 197 games over the last two seasons as they rebuild.

"It's a natural by-product of a bit of a vacuum that's been created," he said. "I also think it shows how special this franchise is. Pick a random team, had they introduced a new character into the organization to entertain children, it may not have been met with the same attention that Clark was greeted with."

The attacks and vulgar representations of Clark led a Cubs spokesperson to call them "negative to despicable" earlier in the week, but Clark proved to be a favorite of kids on Thursday during a Cubs' caravan stop at a local school.

"All those things [the negativity] fade away when we get to where we want to be as a baseball organization and we're winning," Epstein said.