Buzz Buzz Buzz

The latest speculation and withdrawal by Jim Hendry... well, I'll believe it when I see it.

This time he's waited far too long to salvage the season. If you're in a 2-14 spell in early May, you can't just sit around and backslide through the standings, putting up the worst record in the majors over the next two months. There's a good reason the first managerial firings around the leagues often come in early May, even if it wasn't the case this year.

If there's such a lack of leadership that the troops can't be rallied after the loss of only one of their big guns, missing the same Two Big Pitchers as when they opened the year 13-8, it's time to look for another field general.

Hendry technically has 22 days to make up his mind if he's going to try to contend, but there's a lot of ground to make up and three teams to leapfrog before even looking to the other divisions in the Wild Card race. I might add, the '14 Braves, '35 Cubs, '51 Giants, '64 Cards, '69 Mets, '78 Yankees, none of them were 20+ below .500 before pulling off their miracle finishes. If it's gonna happen, he'd better get cracking A.S.A.P.

So okay, names were named. Lou Piniella, that's a pretty big name. Big enough a name that he's the only one I consider worth mentioning. He could be this generation's version of what Leo Durocher was supposed to be. Fiery. Passionate. He's not there to be your buddy, he's there to win, dammit. Joe Diehard couldn't give a squat whether or not there's a swell clubhouse atmosphere, especially when White Sox fans have such a new-found smugness that he half wishes he was the one who popped A.J. Pierzynski, and the Cub fans for once are the ones who are too ashamed to wear their jerseys around town.

But then Hendry backed off. Is he backing off the traditional "vote of confidence" speech that often is a manager's harbinger of doom? All we can do is wait until, far as we know, the All-Star break. I could really care less about the game. The AL wins every year anyway; more top-tier free-agents and fewer team-representative spots clogging the roster. And an exhibition game determining the home field advantage for the World Series is so asinine I want as little to do with it as possible.

But back to the Cubs.

If you bring in a new manager, you have to bring in new coaches. I have some wacky and not-so-wacky suggestions.

First, the first-base coach. Bye-bye Sarge, we love ya for '84, but Vince Coleman is long overdue for a promotion. Man stole over 100 bases in his first three seasons and 145 in his last year in the minors, so he knows a thing or two about how to get over and in as often as possible.

Look who the White Sox put next to first base, Tim Raines. Over 800 stolen bases. Coleman had over 700 in a much shorter career. Their main job all their lives was getting from first base to second. And Coleman's even worked with the kids coming up through the Cubs' farm system. This one should hopefully be a no-brainer.

Next, the pitching coach. This is the wacky part. I'd like to see Greg Maddux finish his career with the Cubs, as a playing coach like Warren Spahn and Yogi Berra back in the '60s. The kids look up to Maddux. They go to him for advice when there's a guy a few seats over who gets paid for that sort of thing. They respect him, as well they should. So make him your pitching coach.

Sure, there might be a bit of a learning curve, but he already knows everybody, and look how much higher in the standings his brother Mike is as pitching coach for the Brewers. God forbid he might teach someone how to field a bunt or a ball hit right back through the box after winning 15 Gold Gloves.

As for the hitting coach? Well, if you want someone who knows how to get on base at Wrigley and re-establish a home-field advantage, I can't think of anyone better suited than Mark Grace. He wants to get back in the game as a coach and, well, he's one of us.

With all the scrub ex-Cubs run through coaching positions since time immemorial, Grace has to be a better choice than Gene Clines. Here come the numbers... NL top 10 in most at-bats per strikeout in each of his first 14 seasons, including every year he was a Cub. Frequent top tens in things like bases on balls, times on base, singles, doubles, sac flies and batting average that you have to rely on from two-thirds of your lineup if you don't want to score all your runs on homers. Look how far that got the Cubs last year. The only question is whether he can teach it, and the Cubs owe him that first shot for keeping him around so long until they finally let him go off and get himself a World Series ring before he hung up his spikes.

All of this prospecting of course hinges on Jim Hendry. If Hendry decides to sell the Cubs for scrap, it won't make much difference in the standings if Baker lasts through the season or not.

But when you could be looking at the worst record for a bad franchise in 40 years and you could have the pick of the managerial litter, you have to consider that guys with Piniella's track record don't come up the pike very often. Won a World Series in his first year in Cincinnati. Seven winning seasons, three division titles and a Wild Card in 10 years after joining a tight-fisted Seattle team that had one .500 season and no postseason appearances in its 16-year existence.

Whether or not the Cubs are going anywhere in 2006, Piniella gives you a better shot in 2007. He even got the Devil Rays out of last place for the only time in their history. And who got the D-Rays all comfy in the cellar while their expansion counterpart Diamondbacks were building a championship? Larry Rothschild.

See, it all comes around.