Piniella
Cubs fans might like that article, I thought it was pretty damn well written...long but worth the read:
Enter Lou Piniella
BY Chris Sprow
Five minutes before Cubs general manager Jim Hendry took to the microphone to introduce new Cubs manager Lou Piniella, a well-known TV sports broadcaster and a well-read local columnist sit in the press conference seating area and greet eachother.
"Big day," says the TV guy.
"Well, it's a new day," the columnist shrugs.
"So how many of these have we seen?" the TV guy asks.
Both smile half-heartedly, glance at the empty podium, and look down at their scant notes.
The foreheads become furrowed, the internal counting commences. A few seconds pass. Neither has an answer.
"So then I guess it's just another day," the columnist offers.
The TV guy shrugs, then nods at reality.
"Yeah. I guess so."
A minute later Jim Hendry is up front reinforcing his commitment to winning, and winning immediately. And a minute after that Lou Piniella is starting his own speech. "The Chicago Cubs are a storied franchise," he says.
And he's absolutely right.
I just wonder which stories he's read.
And to start it all, Lou Piniella placed the Cubs hat on his head, but was careful. Something didn't feel right.
"I still have stitches," he tells us.
Last week, while broadcasting the ALCS for Fox, he hit his head in the truck outside and had to be cleaned up when the blood started running down his head.
So the hat had to come off after a few pictures were taken.
For the believers in Curseology, one resident side-religion of those who see the Cubs as a deity in this town, it wasn't a good omen. This franchise still has stitches of its own, as it tries to heal from one of the more surprisingly devastating seasons in recent memory, and Piniella is supposed to be a part of the healing. He's supposed to fit perfectly as a cap on the franchise, and if not heal all the wounds, at least conceal the recent scars. He should be at least more than a comb-over.
"We got the right man for the job," Hendry reiterates.
But the fact is, as "the right man for the job," Hendry should also be introducing the best aspects of himself. The Hendry who grabbed Aramiz Ramirez and Derrek Lee for peanuts, and re-signed both.
He'll need the best of himself, and so will Piniella. He'll have to be at his most active and best this off-season.
Because for all the aplomb a hire like Piniella creates, the work that must be done with a messy roster is where Hendry will have to concentrate now, and the way he and Piniella can work together will tell a lot more about the future than a press conference, much less spring training.
This Is Just One Addition
There is really only one good place to have a press conference in Wrigley Field on a cold day. So when Lou Piniella walked into the Stadium Club on Tuesday morning, slowly parting a sea of photographers on the way to the podium, it was fitting.
The room is a small sanctuary in the ballpark, painted with blue and red walls, adorned with a Hall of Fame collection of Cubs history, and featuring a fully stocked bar.
And low ceilings.
Like the ceiling on success around here.
It is the ideal setting to welcome Piniella to Cubdom. All the amenities, very crowded, the heat creating sweat, and that 99-year old ceiling always looming too closely overhead.
Piniella, hopefully as a good sign, had no idea that it's been 99 years since the Cubs have won a title. But we know he knows it's been a while. Yet he expects things to change immediately, even as he faces reality.
Asked what the Cubs asked of him, he said he turned it around as well.
"I asked Jim, 'What is your commitment?'" said Piniella.
He knows too well that this situation has to be a two-man show.
When he left Seattle to create a winner in Tampa Bay, he was assured the resources would be spent to compete in a division that includes the wealth of riches in New York and Boston, and the relatively deep wallets of Baltimore and even Toronto. What he got was an empty promise, an empty stadium, and an empty feeling in his stomach.
He expects more out of Chicago.
"Urgency is important," he says.
That means he expects Jim Hendry to act.
For starters, there should be a hard look at the acquisition of A-Rod from New York. The Cubs may have the talent to move, with a strong third bagger of their own in Aramis Ramirez, and one or two young players that could make the deal not just an option, but even financially sound.
With nine million of A-Rod's deal coming from Texas, the Cubs would be assuming around 16 million per year. Yet with Ramirez likely to get a raise closer to the 12-14 million dollar range, the Cubs might be able to rescue A-Rod from his PR quagmire in NYC and part with a player not notorious for his hustle here in Chicago.
Or, they could hang onto Ramirez, and guarantee an immensely powerful left side by moving A-Rod back to his home at shortstop. There are myriad possibilities.
It also means Hendry shouldn't merely enter the discussions for Alfonso Soriano, as he did two years ago for Carlos Beltran, and did last summer with Rafael Furcal, he should genuinely put forth the company dollars if Piniella says "jump." Soriano could enter left or center for this franchise, and immediately become a devastating bat in Wrigley.
Piniella says he absolutely has a reverence for the more modern numbers, the Beane-isms of the game, even though his computer skills are lacking.
If that's not a nod to Soriano over the numbing OPS numbers of Juan Pierre, then Hendry needs a translator.
The game of addition will also have to continue with the pitching staff. Hendry survived a year in which he clearly counted on Mark Prior and Kerry Wood to be keystones of a starting staff, a fireable offense to many. He shouldn't make that mistake again, and Piniella will be there to remind him.
"Hopefully they'll both be healthy," said Sweet Lou.
"Hope" is a term that should signal action to Hendry, who's put too much stock in the word already with this oft-injured pair. They should be a bonus-clause, not a paycheck, healthy insurance in case other deals fall flat. But those deals shouldn't. This is a staff that should be close to stocked before those two ever get to Mesa.
And with enticing arms like Zito and Meche in the market, the Cubs must act.
Hendry will have to remember this day as dealing time comes, because if there was one theme made clear early, it's that Piniella is here because he expects a commitment to spending and winning (and perhaps in that order) to be lived up to by the brass.
If he doesn't get that support, my guess is you'll hear his frustration. And you'll see his hat tossed into the dirt more often, just as it was left aside on this day.
He's too old for the games.
Dumping the Past
Piniella says that he remembers the past, but dwells in the present. He looks forward to the future.
Yet the makeup of this Cubs team is forged mostly from failure. Still, Piniella sees a benefit, particularly with the young guys.
"I think some of the problems of last year will pay dividends," he said.
That's because he notes that a number of young players had to come into the picture this year due to injuries, particularly the pitchers, and that may have pushed their development along at a quicker pace. This is one reason he'll keep Larry Rothschild around as his pitching coach, even as he replaces other members of the coaching staff Dusty Baker had. The results, Piniella said, could be beneficial immediately.
Still, you always have to wonder about a new guy in Chicago. Will he be able to manage the team, or will the peculiar ethos and expectations of this team and this crowd and this stadium manage him.
Piniella said that as he walked up to the microphone, Sharon Pannozzo, the Cubs Media Relations Director, told him that he was the 17th new manager she'd introduced.
"And you'll probably get to introduce a 18th," Piniella told her.
It's not because he thinks he'll fail.
He's older now at 63, and he wants to win quickly in Chicago, before his time on the bench is through; the way he did as a young manager in 1990, when his Reds swept a World Series from the A's.
He knows his place in life, and in the game, and it all means one thing: win now.
That'll be music to the ears of Cubs fans.
To Jim Hendry it should mean something else: get to work.
--------------------
Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake.
-Erik Davis
|
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order
OneMoreRobot3021 
Deadmaker 
Edit 
Reply 
Zambrano and a 3B for A-Rod, mofo.
Madtowntripper
Banez
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 all )
whattheheck
OneMoreRobot3021
blissedout
SheerTerror