Paul Sullivan is trying to make it Lou this year.
Now, I know I've called for Lou to be fired...but I'm a moron. At least I'm not trying to set Lou up to get fired and trying to influence millions of readers. Sullivan has been very carefully been writing stories that have systematically tried to sway people into thinking that Lou must go. As a beat reporter, this isn't his job.
Today Sullivan wrote a story about Lou's fate...
The title of the story? "Lou Piniella: Philosophically Awaiting His Fate"
Um...is there some decision that is imminent? Are the Rickettses preparing a press conference? Ok...
Lou Piniella has no intention of leaving the Cubs before the end of the season, won't manage again after he leaves town and has no regrets about coming to Chicago.Well, duh!
General manager Jim Hendry has said repeatedly he doesn't plan on firing Piniella, but some wondered how much longer Piniella could stand watching this season play out.Ok, this about the stupidest sentence in this whole story. It starts out as Jim Hendry being the decision maker here. First off, the decision for this season is probably out of Jim Hendry's hands. Besides, he would never fire Lou in mid-season...just as he is way overly loyal to players that he has signed over the years. Then, in mid-sentence, Sullivan switches saying that the decision is Lou's and that he could walk away.
Lou is not going to walk away. There is no way he will leave the money he is being paid right now on the table. In fact, I suspect one of the biggest reasons he decided to even come back this year was the fact he wasn't going to leave $4 million on the table.
Piniella declined to say whether this would be his final year as Cubs' manager. But he sounded like a man resigned to fate.Honestly, people have said that in 3 out of the 4 seasons that Lou has managed here. In 2007, he sounded as if he felt like he made the wrong decision to come and manage again...well at least until Zambrano beat the crap out of Michael Barrett. Last year, people said the same thing...that Lou was tired, that he didn't want to be there. Well...he came back.
The truth is, if the Cubs ask Lou to come back, I think he probably will. He'd probably be offered $5 million for next season, and that would be pretty damn hard to turn down. But the Cubs aren't going to do that.
Then there was this brilliant bull-crap:
A few days ago, ESPN.com posted a rumor that Torre might be interested in the Cubs' job since he's likely to leave the Dodgers after this season.Fat chance. Why even bother saying this. Joe Torre isn't coming to Chicago. The Cubs aren't going to wheel Torre's cold dead corpse over from LA to manage next year.
But, of course, you can't try to push the current manager out of town without having his replacement in mind. But can't you come up with something better than Joe Torre?
Hey Paul, why don't you share that rumor with Lou?
"That's all right," Piniella said. "He can come here. He'll find out that it's a little harder than what he thinks it is. But that's OK. When I leave here they can hire the best manager they can, and I wish him well."Yep...help try to push Lou out of town by telling him who should replace him...a guy who is 3 years older than him. Yeah. Good luck. Luckily, Lou is taking that rumor about as seriously as the thought of Ryan Theriot batting clean-up. (oops...he might think that is a good idea).
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The Cubs won the first game of a series for the first time in a month and a half. And they followed that up with a second win...giving the Cubs a (trumpets, please!) winning streak!!!! On top of that, they officially have won this series against the D-Backs...their first series win in a month. They did take 3 out of 4 against the D-Backs earlier this year. So what we basically know about this team now is that they can beat the Brewers and the D-Backs...and that is about it.
It looks as if Zambrano will be back not long after the All-Star break as he is already going through throwing sessions right now.
That's a good thing, because we could use his bat.
