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  • #1

    Breaking news! I am sure many will be happy!

    Cubs Lou Piniella will step down after Sunday’s game
    SportingNews
    13 minutes ago


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    Cubs manager Lou Piniella announced he will step down after today's game with the Braves.

    Chicago has named third base coach Mike Quade manager for the rest of the season.

    The Cubs hired Piniella after the 2006 season. The Cubs won the NL Central in 2007 and 2008 before things fell apart last year.
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  • #2
    Quitter.
    Am I the longest tenured BC member?

    Comment

    • #3
      Originally posted by zeib10 View Post
      Quitter.
      exactly ... don't let the door hit you







      Lou Piniella Retires Earlier!


      Chicago Cubs Manager Lou Piniella announced a few weeks ago that he would be retiring at the end of this season, but now we’re getting word that date has been pushed up!


      Lou is retiring after TODAY’s game against the Braves at 1:20pm!!!


      He gave the following statement regarding the change:


      When I previously announced my intentions to retire at the end of the season, a primary reason for my decision was that it would allow me to spend more valuable time with my family. That time has unfortunately gotten here sooner than I could have ever expected.  As many know, the several weeks since that announcement was made have been very difficult on a family level, requiring two leaves of absence from the club.  While I fully intended to manage this club the rest of the season, a family situation at home now requires my full attention. 



      Lou has not disclosed what the family issue is. Hope all is ok!


      Third base coach Mike Quade will step in as interim manager starting Monday. He’s been with the Cubs for 8 years.

      Comment

      • #4
        The End Not So Sweet for Lou Piniella



        On Sunday, they had a little celebration before the game, when Piniella and Atlanta manager Bobby Cox turned in their lineup cards. Piniella waved thanks to the crowd.



        When the game ended, he took his cap off and waved at
      • Greg Couch

      • National Columnist











      They were losing 16-5, having committed three errors and basically done everything else wrong, too. But the Cubs had the bases loaded at least, in the ninth inning. One last rally for Lou Piniella, for all he meant to a team, to a sport?



      The next batter grounded into a double play.




      Piniella sat there in the Cubs dugout in a Cubs uniform, the worst possible uniform for this. And it was all over. The game, yes. But Lou Piniella's career, too.



      Nearly 50 years in baseball, so many great years, and it ended for Piniella Sunday slumped in a Cubs uniform. Ever have that dream when you find yourself at a party or work or school and you're naked? This is worse, the worst possible ending for a great baseball career.



      "I get emotional, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Piniella said a few minutes later, his face contorting as he tried to fight back tears. "I'm not trying to be ... This is the last time I put on a uniform. It's been very special to me."



      By then, he was weeping.




      The uniform is sacred in sports. In Chicago, they still remember Walter Payton sitting on the bench after his last game, not wanting to go take off that uniform for the last time.



      It isn't just work clothes, but also a symbol of camaraderie and teamwork, of commitment, of something pure and simple and meaningful. Piniella was planning to stay on as the Cubs manager until the end of the year, but on Sunday, he announced that this was going to be his last day. He wanted to be with his mother, Margaret, who's 90 and in failing health. He has left the team twice recently to take care of her in Tampa, Fla.




      "My mom needs me at home; she hasn't gotten any better since I've been here," he said Sunday before the game with the Braves. "In fact, she's had other complications.



      "Rather than continue to go home, come back ... It's not fair to the team, not fair to the players. The best thing to do is to step down, go home and take care of my mother."



      It's the better place for him to be. There was no reason to stay with the Cubs for the final six weeks, to drag this out. In fact, Piniella should have left weeks ago when he announced his retirement. He stayed on as a lame-duck, 66-year-old manager, his mind no longer on the team. Even without his family issues, it would have been a mistake to stay. The team, of course, has been playing as if it had a lame-duck boss, too.




      The Cubs should have named whichever manager GM Jim Hendry intends to have run the team next year. That's probably Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, the ex-Cub who has spent the past few years on buses, working his way up the Cubs minor league system as a manager. He is at Triple-A Des Moines now, and could have benefited from 50 or 60 games of big league experience. Instead, third-base coach Mike Quade will finish the year.



      There was no right way for this to end for Piniella, not the way the season has gone. The Cubs are awful again.



      He came to Chicago to be that last piece that finally gives the Cubs a World Series. Hah!



      To go over the past 70 years or so, the Cubs were owned by a gum maker, Wrigley, who didn't know anything about baseball, didn't much care and didn't want to spend enough to win.




      Finally, a newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, bought the team, and it was willing to spend a little more. But a boardroom doesn't have a beating heart, and the Cubs need an owner who cares. The newspaper even ran a dirty ticket scalping operation against its own fans.



      Strangely, the paper decided to really go for it, just as it was looking to sell the team. Without any real structure, or thought to its team's needs, it started buying up all possible expensive players. It was never a team, really, but just a collection of odd, slightly flawed parts.



      Piniella was supposed to work magic. He almost did it in his first year, 2007. He spent six weeks or so sifting through the garbage of players on the roster, and then pieced together a team that won the division. He was swept in the playoffs.



      The Cubs won 97 games in 2008 and were ready to win. But they went away quickly in the postseason again, as the prospects of changing over 100 years of losing somehow turned an entire team into goo.



      That was about it for Piniella. He failed in Chicago. One goal, and it wasn't met. He knew what he was here for, too.




      You hate to see a half century end this way, in this laundry. Piniella won the World Series in a Yankees uniform as a player and a Cincinnati uniform as a manager. He might have saved the Seattle franchise managing in a


      He has been an important part of the fabric of baseball for too long to leave him out of the Hall of Fame. But how sad that it all ended with the Cubs, where the uniform itself screams out "LOSER."




      Piniella tried to change that, but couldn't. And when it ended, he was trapped in that uniform like so many others have been.



      Baseball could thank him so easily by getting him in the Hall. That way, he'll have a different ending, a different uniform for the future to remember him by.

      Comment

      • #5
        I bet if they were in 1st place he would not be leaving 37 games early ...

        Friggen garbage team .. garbage franchise ...

        Comment

        • #6
          Yep you are probably right Joe. I really hope he is serious about his mother. That would take precedence IMO. Not sticking up for him at all as he did a lousy job. It was way past his time that is for sure. That we can agree on.

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          • #7
            Originally posted by bryce View Post
            Yep you are probably right Joe. I really hope he is serious about his mother. That would take precedence IMO. Not sticking up for him at all as he did a lousy job. It was way past his time that is for sure. That we can agree on.
            Mark, if they were in first place his mom would want him to stay. FAMILY FIRST, no doubt about it.

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            • #8
              Originally posted by Spark View Post
              Mark, if they were in first place his mom would want him to stay. FAMILY FIRST, no doubt about it.
              Gotcha buddy. I guess my point was is that I hope he is not using his mother as an excuse to get out. I am hoping he is seriously concerned. That's all.

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              • #9
                Originally posted by bryce View Post
                Gotcha buddy. I guess my point was is that I hope he is not using his mother as an excuse to get out. I am hoping he is seriously concerned. That's all.
                Yeah Mark, that is the way I meant it. Maybe it did not sound that way as I wrote it. I think it is just a big fat excuse for him to leave 36 days early. I feel he should never have done that. Go down with the ship SKIPPER

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                • #10
                  I hope the Cubs roster next year consists of 99% guys who I have never heard of. Not these lousy, overpaid, past their prime, prima donnas who just show up and expect a paycheck. They need more hustle, more fundamental players, and most of all more heart!

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                  • #11
                    Originally posted by kbsooner21 View Post
                    I hope the Cubs roster next year consists of 99% guys who I have never heard of. Not these lousy, overpaid, past their prime, prima donnas who just show up and expect a paycheck. They need more hustle, more fundamental players, and most of all more heart!
                    and Ryne Sandberg.....

                    Comment

                    • #12
                      Piniella quit 2 years ago. He just made it official last sunday.

                      I saw some bizzare shit from the guy this year. On 3 different occasions I saw him let the pitcher hit with men of base and 2 outs ..Only to take him out at the start of the next inning !!!!!!!!!! WTF !!!

                      Comment

                      • #13
                        Originally posted by shoeman530 View Post
                        and Ryne Sandberg.....
                        Dont believe the Sandberg hype.

                        The guy is soft and he is a giant pussy.

                        If they hire Sandberg Im gonna cross out the cross out the next 3 years off my cubs calander

                        Comment

                        • #14
                          Originally posted by GOLDENGREEK View Post
                          Piniella quit 2 years ago. He just made it official last sunday.

                          I saw some bizzare shit from the guy this year. On 3 different occasions I saw him let the pitcher hit with men of base and 2 outs ..Only to take him out at the start of the next inning !!!!!!!!!! WTF !!!

                          Comment

                          • #15
                            I was sad to see him go...

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