New Blood

Let’s face it. Joe Girardi was the overwhelming fan favorite in this year’s manager search because Joe’s one of us. One of us. One of us. One of us.

The line that some of you may remember from the Ramones’ classic “Pinhead” came from Tod Browning’s 1932 film Freaks.

But while Cubbie Nation was chanting “one of us”, how many of us stopped to think that the long list of Freaks who were “one of us” never got “us” anywhere? The drought that Sarge, Gene Clines, and Chris Speier were trying to end as coaches, and Fergie and Billy and Zim and Billy Connors and Lee Elia and many others, is the same drought that every one of them tried and failed to end as Cub players. Building a New Tradition it's not.

So in comes Lou Piniella, responsible for seven of the nine .500+ seasons in the Mariners' 30-year history and Cincinnati's only pennant and title in that same span. Ten division titles as a player or manager and three World Series rings. Could have been more if Randy Johnson could win in a Division Series.

His first choice was Alan Trammell, who ranks 6th in Gold Gloves and 3rd in Silver Sluggers among shortstops. Played in a World Series and won it. Inherited almost as big a mess as Girardi's in Miami and turned it into something that was a couple of free-agent starting pitchers away from a pennant.

He brought up Mike Quade, who spent three years as a base coach in Oakland that all resulted in postseason play. He knows the farm system and its recent graduates, as does new bullpen coach Lester Strode, the Cubs' longtime minor league pitching instructor.

Matt Sinatro is the new first-base coach, one of Piniella's guys from Seattle. I've been hoping Vince Coleman would have gotten that job, but if you can't put a base-stealer there, go for a guy who used to try to throw out base-stealers.

The lone holdover is Larry Rothschild. It's tough to say if it's going to be a good call since Dusty Baker never knew how to handle a pitching staff. Lou and Larry did win a ring with the Reds (Rothschild won another with the Marlins in 1997), and Larry got his part of the job done for the Cubs in 2003 and 2004. But while Rothschild managed to put the Cubs atop the history books in strikeouts, it took a lot of pitches on a lot of young arms to get there, and Carlos Zambrano is the last man standing. With all the young pitching on the bubble Rothschild and Strode might be the sanest move, but the acquisition or reacquisition of a couple of reliable starting pitchers will make all the difference. We'll just have to wait and see.

But for the first time in a long time, the Cubs' coaching staff isn't loaded down with guys who have proven they don't know how to win at Wrigley Field.

MacBail and Phaker: So Far, So Good

Heads are rolling in Wrigleyville. All it took was a $95 million payroll and a last-place finish.

With Andy MacPhail stepping down and Dusty Baker not being renewed, the Cubs made more progress in 24 hours than they did in the past two years. Now the marketing guy, John McDonough, takes the title of Interim President. I like the word “Interim” there. It leaves a door open.

We know McDonough is capable as an executive. Needless to say, if there’s one thing the Cubs have been doing right it’s marketing. Three-point-one million tickets sold for the third-worst team in baseball. Does it make him a good club president? Maybe we’ll see, maybe we won’t.

And while I’m not familiar with the working relationship of VP/GM Jim Hendry and MacPhail, Hendry for the interim is no longer a baseball man answering to a baseball man. He won’t have to answer to a Guy Who (once, a long time ago) Won Two World Series.

Hendry’s own job appears safe for now. He’s had a good tenure overall, but failing to cut Baker loose while the ship was sinking in May was a big mistake. The clubhouse needed a new attitude and stronger leadership when the NL was still up for grabs. But that’s mercifully behind us.

So the managerial hunt begins tomorrow, according to the Cubs. Tomorrow... another interesting word choice there. Any coincidence that Joe Girardi is supposedly becoming available tomorrow?

And one would assume that a new managerial regime would also involve replacing members of the coaching staff. Larry Rothschild has to be at least partially to blame for Wood and Prior time-sharing the Disabled List. All Gene Clines accomplished was cutting down the strikeouts, which was as much Hendry's doing. I’ve been saying Vince Coleman belongs in the box at first since long before I started blogging here, at least it would provide a familiar face to all the young Cubs who won’t be forced back to AAA by, ideally, a spending spree worthy of George Steinbrenner this off-season.

McDonough set the bar pretty high by announcing he wanted to win the World Series. It’s time the Cubs walk off with two or three of the pre-eminent free agents. It’s time the Cubs quit shopping in the bargain bins hoping next year’s version of Wade Miller will get into a game before September, or that Jacque Jones is the key to a title, or that the only thing separating the Cubs and a ring is setup relief.

It’s put up or shut up time.