Despite the lack of playoff wins during his tenure with the Cubs, Piniella has done a good job in Chicago.  He led the team to back-to-back division championships for the first time since 1907-08, and the Cubs had three winning seasons in a row under him (2007-2009).  Depending on how the 2010 season ends, he could end up with four winning seasons in a row (although I would not bet on it).

Of course, the speculation on who the Cubs manager will be starting in 2011 started even before Piniella officially announced his retirement.  Ryne Sandberg seems to be the fans choice.  Sandberg is probably my favorite Cubs player of all time (I celebrate Ryne Sandberg day every June 23), but there’s a big part of me that hopes he isn’t the next manager.  Sure, I have some concerns about Sandberg’s ability to lead a big league club.  But more than that, I don’t want to see him fail.  Ryno has a spectacular reputation among Cubs fans and I would hate to see that tarnished in any way.

Another potential managerial hire is Joe Girardi.  I have a lot of respect for Girardi.  I also have the tangential connection to him through my in-laws (I’ve explained this before, but my wife grew up with Joe and their families were friends for years, although not so much now).  I think he would do as good of a job with the Cubs as anyone, but I seriously doubt he’ll leave the Yankees.  Maybe his connection to the Cubs is stronger than I think it is, but I just don’t see him giving up the managerial job with a perennial winner to take the same job with a perennial loser.

Cubs announcer Bob Brenly is also in the discussion.  I appreciate the fact that he has spoken his mind concerning the Cubs poor play this year, but I wonder if that might not hurt him.  Even if it doesn’t hurt him with the front office, it just might hurt him with the players.

Alan Trammel’s name has also been thrown into the mix.  The Cubs bench coach is certainly familar with the ball club, but I wonder if his association with Piniella might not hurt him.  With Piniella leaving, I would think the club would want to make a clean break from the past.  Keeping Trammel around sort of just continues the coaching philosophy of the past three plus years.  Plus, for what it’s worth, Trammel does not have a particularly inspiring track record as a manager.

Paul Sullivan also mentions Joe Torre as a possible replacement for Piniella.  Torre’s contract with the Dodgers is up at the end of this year and he has mentioned his desire to manage the Cubs in the past.  Personally, I don’t see it.  I’m not sure that it is a good fit and I wonder how much the 70-year old Torre still has in the tank.  Of course, it’s hard to argue with the success Torre had in New York and to a lesser extent in Los Angeles.  Even so, if I was a betting man, I’d bet against a Torre era with the Cubs.

Finally, a dark horse candidate might be Pat Listach.  He a former Cubs minor league coach and the current third-base coach for the Nationals.  He was well-liked while he was in the Cubs’ organization and he’s well-respected throughout baseball.  Even so, I don’t think he has the big name brand equity the Cubs will likely be looking for.

So who will the next manager be?  Perhaps a better question is, who will be hiring the next manager.  Jim Hendry is on the hot seat and he very well may not be back next year.  Will Hendry do the hiring?  Will a new GM do the hiring?  Will Tom Ricketts make the decision on the next Cubs manager regardless of who is sitting in the GM’s chair?  It should be interesting.

UPDATE:  Paul Sullivan at Chicago Breaking Sports has an update on the Lou Piniella press conference.  In addition to confirming that Piniella will retire at the end of the season, Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said that he plans on retaining Jim Hendry and that Hendry will be making the decision on a new manager.  To me, that’s a little surprising, but it is probably a good idea to get it out of the way now rather than fueling speculation for the rest of the year and going into the off-season.

There’s no doubt that Hendry has his detractors and some of what they say when they complain about him is true.  Hendry has made his mistakes.  But who among MLB GM’s has not made similar mistakes.  Theo Epstein in Boston is often held up as the perfect GM, especially by the Sabermetric crowd.  But Epstein has made his share of mistakes.  Under his direction, Boston has released players who were still owed big money (i.e. Julio Lugo) and are in a position right now where they want to pay someone to take Mike Lowell off their hands.  Brian Cashman and Billy Beane are two other GM’s who are often lauded, but who also have a mixed record.

In order to be a successful GM, you have to take some risks.  And when you take risks, sometimes you lose.  It’s the nature of the game.  If you look objectively at Hendry’s record (something that is hard for Cubs fans to do, including me), you find that at the very least, he has done a respectable job.  I can’t say I’m thrilled that Hendry will be leading the Cubs into 2011 and perhaps beyond, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it either.

With Hendry coming back, I think the odds of Sandberg being the next manager just increased a bit.  Sandberg has done everything Hendry has asked of him, and he has done it well and with success.  He’s climbed the coaching ladder within the Cubs organization and I think it will be tough for Hendry not to choose him as the Cubs next manager. 

In fact, let me make a prediction.  In the near future, I predict that Sandberg will by moved up onto Piniella’s coaching staff to get a little big league coaching experience before taking over the team next year.  It’s just a guess on my part, but remember, you heard it here first.

First, let’s start with the basics.  The one-hour long primetime special in which James announced his decision to join the Heat was an unsavory spectacle and served to reinforce James reputation as a narcissistic, self-important athlete.  Okay, fair enough.  Nothing surprising about that.  James acted pretty much the way we would expect the self-proclaimed “King” to act.  And ESPN didn’t disappoint either.  Anything to make a buck.

Even so, I have to admit that I felt dirty watching the spectacle.  It was uncomfortable to watch.  The fact that the money raised from advertising revenue for the show (courtesy mostly of the University of Phoenix) went to the Boys and Girls Clubs really didn’t relieve the discomfort much.  It was a nice touch, about equal to having the knowledge that Adolph Hitler liked dogs.  It’s nice, but really doesn’t change anything.

When James finally announced that he was leaving Cleveland to join Miami, the announcement felt anticlimactic to me.  Honestly, I don’t think there was anything he could say that would have lived up to the hype.  A really good basketball player was leaving his hometown team to sign with a different team.  So what?  It’s happened before.  It will happen again.  Nothing special here.  It was a waste of an hour of TV viewing and I’m hopeful that nothing like this will ever happen again, although it probably will.

As for the decision itself, okay, it makes some sense.  James will be teaming up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh to form one of the best 1-2-3 punches in all of basketball.  But let’s not hand the championship to the Heat just yet.  Other teams have done this exact same thing and championships have not been the automatic result.  Just ask the Boston Celtics.  One could argue that the Celtics big three (Kevin Garrnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen or Rajon Rondo) are not as good as James, Wade and Bosh, but I would argue that the Celtics are much more balanced than the Heat are likely to be.  In fact, one could make a convincing argument that the Heat are far too top heavy to win an NBA championship.

On a personal level, I can somewhat understand James’ desire to leave Cleveland.  Sure, the Cavs are his hometown team, but James has never worked/lived outside of the Cleveland area.  My guess is that it is difficult for one of the most recognizable, marketable players in all of pro sports to have his life confined to one town, especially one as parochial as Cleveland.  I can understand James desire to try something new, especially if that something new can improve his chances of winning a championship and also increase his worldwide brand.  Miami may not be the “big city” like New York, but it is much more international than Cleveland.

The part of the story that really intrigues me is not so much LeBron’s decision to sign with the Heat, but rather Cavs owner Dan Gilbert’s reaction to LeBron turning his back on Cleveland.  In an open letter to Cavs fans that he posted on the Cavs website, Gilbert took several swipes at James.  He called the days leading up to James decision a “several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build up” and called James decision a “cowardly betrayal.”  He also promised Cavs fans that he would be communicating more dirt about LeBron over the next several days and weeks.  Gilbert then closed his letter by guaranteeing that the Cavs would win an NBA championship before James does.  I can only assume Gilbert had been drinking when he made this guarantee.

One of the lines that struck me as a particularly ridiculous was when Gilbert said, “[T]his shocking act of disloyalty from our homegrown ‘chosen one’ sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn.  And ‘who’ we want them to grow up to become.”  Right.  As always, it’s about the children.  And of course, rather than being “disloyal,” we want them to grow up to be whiney bitches like Gilbert.  If you don’t get what you want, just complain about it and call other people names.  Good lesson.

As if this foolish letter wasn’t enough, Gilbert then gave an interview in which he claimed that James completely gave up during the 2010 playoffs.   ”He has gotten a free pass,” Gilbert said in a phone interview with the AP. “People have covered up for [James] for too long. Tonight we saw who he really is.”

Talking about the 2010 NBA playoffs, Gilbert said, “He quit.  Not just in game 5, but in games 2, 4 and 6.  Watch the tape.  The Boston series was unlike anything in the history of sports for a superstar.”  Later in the interview, Gilbert claimed that James also quit on the team during the Cavs playoff series with Orlando in 2009.

Of course, these accusations beg the question, why did Cleveland want James back and why are they so crushed that he is leaving?  If Gilbert really believes what he is saying, it seems logical that he would be happy to see James go.  Instead, he sounds like a teenage girl whose boyfriend has just broken up with her.  Real classy, Gilbert.

Gilbert’s actions make me believe that maybe James wasn’t coddled as much in Cleveland as we have been led to believe.  With the owner of the team feeling so much resentment toward James at least since 2009, would it be surprising to learn that the team wasn’t treating James very well?   

Keep in mind, LeBron James almost single-handedly put Cleveland back on the NBA map.  He gave the team seven years of his life and the Cavs rode him for all he was worth.  He was the face of the franchise and Cleveland marketed him in every possible way they could.  It seems to me that Gilbert would have been much better off simply saying “Thanks for your time and good luck in Miami,” rather than throwing a hissy fit and calling James names. 

Of course, one of the problems that Cleveland had even before James left was that free agents by-and-large did not want to sign with the Cavs.  Considering all of the towns that have NBA teams, Cleveland is not particularly attractive.  James new teammate, Chris Bosh, was the latest free agent to voice his reluctance to sign with Cleveland.  Now, with James gone and the owner publically lambasting the best player in franchise history within minutes of him signing elsewhere, I don’t think free agents are going to be knocking down the door in Cleveland to join the Cavs.

Without James and without other high profile free agents, it’s going to be very difficult for the Cavs to do good on Gilbert’s promise that Cleveland would win an NBA championship before LeBron does.  After Gilbert’s self-deluded tirade, the smart money is on LeBron.

Zambrano will be paid for his time away from the team, so for all intent and purposes, there was no suspension.  It’s unclear how long the anger management training will last, but my understanding is that players can only stay on the restricted list for a maximum of 30 days.

Of course, this is good news for the Cubs.  Had Zambrano remained suspended, the Cubs were going to be stuck with having only 24 players on the big league roster.  However, MLB rules allow teams to replace a player on the restricted list, meaning the Cubs can go with the traditional 25 man roster.

So what now?  What happens when Zambrano is done with anger management training and is ready to resume his place in society?  A lot of people feel Z should be waived or traded.    In my last post, I explained why trading Zambrano might be easier said than done.  In a nutshell, Z is:

• Underperforming
• Owed $45.4 million
• Has a no-trade clause in his contract

These things would make it tough, but not impossible, to trade the big right-hander.

Despite the difficulty involved in putting together a trade, our friends over at MLB Trade Rumors.com put together a list of potential trades the Cubs could make involving Zambrano.  They include:

• Zambrano to Houston for Carlos Lee
• Zambrano to San Francisco for Aaron Rowand and Edgar Reteria
• Zambrano to the Mets for Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo
• Zambrano to Atlanta for Derek Lowe
• Zambrano to Cleveland for Travis Hafner, Kerry Wood, and Jake Westbrook
• Zambrano to Kansas City for Gil Meche, Jose Guillen, and Kyle Farnsworth
• Zambrano to the Yankees for A.J. Burnett

One of the commenters at MLBTR then floated the possibility of:

• Zambrano to Baltimore for Brian Roberts

As MLBTR pointed out, some of these trades would require that the Cubs also kick in a portion of Zambrano’s rather hefty salary.

A lot of people feel the Zambrano to the Mets rumor has the most possibilities.  The Mets are in need of starting pitching, Perez is holding the team hostage by refusing to go to the minor leagues to work out his pitching problems, and the Mets desperately want to move Castillo and his contract.  The Mets have been keeping their eye on a possible trade with Seattle for Cliff Lee, but one of the Mets trading chips, minor leaguer Jenrry Mejia, went down with an injury, making a Cliff Lee deal less likely.  Moving quickly on Zambrano could shore up their pitching staff without disturbing their farm system.

New York is a place that Zambrano might fancy.  He views himself as a big stage kind of guy and he might just jump at the chance to remake himself on the biggest stage in baseball.

Of course, the Cubs have some say in the matter and my hope is that they say “no way.”  Perez is a mess and Castillo is both not very good and overpaid.  Why trade one problem for two? 

Of course, this brings up the question, is it even necessary/desireable to trade Zambrano?  For me, the jury is still out.  Last year, I strongly fell on the side of trading Milton Bradley at all costs.  He was a malcontent who did not care about playing well or helping the team.  Zambrano seems to be just the opposite, although I’ll be quick to admit that he is going about being a team player in the wrong way.

In a conversation Z had with former teammate Kevin Millar following his suspension, Z explained that he was trying to fire up the team and was not trying to call out any one person, including Derrek Lee.  He also admitted that he knew he wasn’t the right person for the job, considering his own struggles.  However, when no one else stepped up, his frustration got the best of him and he threw a tantrum.   Obviously, not the best course of action, but I do appreciate his desire to fire up the team and win baseball games.

Having said that, Zambrano has a long track record of inappropriate behavior during his career.  The most significant was beating up his battery mate, Michael Barrett.  So I don’t want to paint Zambrano as a guy who is simply full of passion and who wants to fire up his team to play better.  Z has issues, there’s no doubt about that.  Even so, I don’t think the Cubs are in the same boat with Z that they were with Bradley.  They don’t have to trade him come hell or high water.

Even so, Hendry should keep his eyes out for a potential trade.  Zambrano is not irreplaceable.  If Hendry’s old buddy Andy McPhail calls and wants to discuss a Zambrano for Brian Roberts trade, by all means, Hendry should listen.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the video of Zambrano’s latest meltdown, complete with commentary from the insufferable Steve Stone:

In a nutshell, Zambrano had a very difficult first inning, giving up two doubles, a single, and a three-run homerun to the White Sox Carlos Quentin.  At the end of the half-inning, Zambrano returned to the dugout and went nuts.  He started screaming at everyone within earshot and seemed to aim the brunt of his vitriol at Derek Lee, presumably because Lee did not dive to make a fantastic play on Juan Pierre’s double down the first base line.

Lee took exception to Zambrano’s tirade and the two came face-to-face before Lou Piniella and Alan Trammel intervened.  For his part, Piniella sent Zambrano home in a scene reminiscent of Milton Bradley’s early exit from a game against the White Sox at U.S. Cellular last year.  To put a bit of icing on the cake, Zambrano destroyed another Gatorade cooler and then treated the cameramen waiting outside U.S. Cellular to an expletive-filled rendition of his greatest hits.

Following the game, Cubs GM Jim Hendry announced that Zambrano had been suspended indefinitely for his actions, which Hendry described as “not acceptable.”  MLB and the Player’s Association will each conduct an investigation of the incident before it is determined exactly how long the suspension will last.  Last year’s suspension of Bradley lasted the remainder of the season.  However, that suspension occurred in the middle of September when the season was almost over.  My guess is that Zambrano’s suspension will not last more than two or three weeks.

In the post-game press conference, Piniella indirectly defended Lee by pointing out that the balls hit by the White Sox were hit really hard and that one of them (the homerun to Quentin) ended up in the stands.  Piniella went on to say that Zambrano would, at the very least, be required to apologize to his teammates before he would be allowed to return to the Cubs clubhouse.  He later announced that, once he returns, Big Z will be returning to the bullpen, replaced in the rotation by Tom Gorzelanny.

After being sent home early, Zambrano rather publically went to dinner with White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen and his family.  Z has been roundly criticized for having dinner with the opposing manager, especially after being suspended from his own team earlier in the day.  I’m less critical.  I’m sure the arrangements were made far in advance and I’m not sure how having dinner with Guillen makes the situation worse.  However, I will admit that the better decision may have been to postpone dinner to a more settled time.

I want to give kudos to both Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella for the consistent way they have handled the situation.  They caught some flack last year both when Bradley was sent home from a game early and when he was suspended in September.  Some even suggested that the treatment was racially motivated.  Handling Zambrano the same way Bradley was handled is right and appropriate.  It sends a signal that bad behavior will not be tolerated, regardless of your race or the size of your contract.

Of course, that brings up the question, considering that Bradley never played another game in a Cubs uniform following his suspension, what’s going to happen to Zambrano?  The situation is a bit difference.  In the case of Zambrano, Hendry does not have the luxury of the off season to make a trade.  Also, Zambrano is owed about $45 million over the next two-and-a-half years; about twice as much as Bradley was owed.  Finally, Z has a full no-trade clause.  If he chooses to, he can block any trades Hendry might be able to make.

Hendry should be working the phones to gauge interest in Zambrano, but my guess is it’s going to be a tough sell.  To move the 29-year old pitcher, Hendry will likely have to eat a large portion of the contract or he’ll have to take on another bad contract in return.  Zambrano will also have to agree to any trade.

Another option is to just put Zambrano on waivers.  Let’s see if any other team will come along and claim Z.  Perhaps it will turn into an Alex Rios situation where Toronto just let the White Sox have Rios without making a trade.  The Sox just claimed his contract.

Watching the Cubs at this point is like watching a train wreck.  You don’t really want to see the carnage, but you just can’t turn away.  And while Zambrano’s antics add a bit of interest to an otherwise uninteresting season, both Hendry and Piniella are right.  Zambrano’s behavior is unacceptable.

I know that I have been one of the last holdouts who still believes the Cubs can turn things around.  It’s true, I do feel that way, but I also recognize that it is my heart that is making me believe in the Cubs.  My eyes don’t see anything from the team that would justify this belief and my head knows that the Cubs are a terribly flawed team.

Even the Rule 4 draft this past week was a disappointment for Cubs fans.  Maybe Tim Wilken is smarter than everyone else.  It’s possible, and I think considering his past drafts he deserves the benefit of the doubt.  Even so, it was a bit disheartening when the Cubs, with the 16th pick overall, chose a Division III pitcher that no one had heard of.  Actually, to be fair, some people had heard of him.  Baseball America had him listed as the 191st best player in the draft.  So they had heard of him.  They just didn’t like him that much.

Of course, the player I am referring to is Hayden Simpson.  He was so relatively unknown that the MLB Network spelled his name wrong when he was chosen (Haden instead of Hayden).  Simpson is a 21-year old right handed pitcher out of the University of Southern Arkansas.  He had an impressive year, going 13-1 with a 1.91 ERA.  His fastball is in the 91-93 mph range and he has topped out at 96 mph.  He’s listed as 6′0″, but I’ve heard he is really only 5′8″.

The thing with baseball drafts is that it can be years before a team knows if they had a good draft or not.  So it is possible that the Cubs got a steal when they drafted Simpson.  It is possible that Tim Wilken is the smartest guy in the room.  But it’s also possible that Wilken made a huge mistake with the Cubs first round pick.  We just won’t know it for several years.

The Cubs open a three-game series this afternoon with the crosstown rival White Sox.  This year’s Crosstown Series winner will be awarded with the BP Cup.  It’s a marketing ploy being sponsored by one of the most hated corporations in America and it means virtually nothing to the players and most of the fans.  Even so, it seems almost appropriate that a company like BP should sponsor a trophy to be given to the lesser of two underperforming teams. 

It’s difficult to get excited about the way the Cubs have played this year.  They have played just well enough to be mediocre.  They’re not the worst team in the NL, but they’re far from the best.

The Cubs draft was hard to get too excited about.  Anytime you choose the 191st best anything when you have the 16th pick, it’s going to have a dampening effect on your enthusiasm level. 

And it’s also hard to get excited about two disappointing teams playing for a meaningless trophy.  BP would be better served using the trophy to plug the underwater oil gusher they have off the coast of Louisiana.  At least then it would do some good.

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I would be remiss if I did not mention the fact that the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup earlier this week.  I’m not a big hockey fan, but I was cheering for the Hawks in the playoffs.  The Stanley Cup and several of the Blackhawks players will be at Wrigley Field today as part of the circus surrounding the Cubs vs White Sox series.

Reports are that Ryan Dempster and Randy Wells were out on the town last night partying with the Stanley Cup champions.  The report indicated that Wells finally left the party at 3:00 AM.  Dempster was still partying hard at that point.  This wouldn’t exactly be big news except that Wells is scheduled to pitch this afternoon against the White Sox.  Who knows, maybe it will help him.

I am sad to report that now that the Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup, every major sports team in Chicago has won a championship during my lifetime except the one team that I follow most closely; the Cubs.  Oh cruel fate, why must you mock me so?

Enough is enough!  Stop the madness!

The month of May just ended and the Cubs are approximately one-third of the way through the season.  During their two months of play, the Cubs have a record of 24-29, good for third place in the NL Central.  They are currently 6.5 games behind the first place Reds (I still have trouble typing that).

Like so many Cubs fans, I am disappointed in the way the team has played thus far this season.  The fact that the Cubs have lost seven-of-eight games to the lowly Pirates just makes the season seem that much worse.  But the fact is that there is still time to turn things around.  By no means is the season a lost cause (at least not yet).  Enough with the calls to blow up the team.

Let’s be practical for a moment.  The Cubs are trailing a Reds team that is over-performing.  Baseball history is full of teams that played well for two or three months, only to turn back into pumpkins as the season progressed.  A turnaround by the Cubs coupled with a Reds team that comes back to Earth could mean a happy second half of the season for the Cubs.

What about the Cardinals, you ask?  The Cardinals are not the juggernaut a lot of people make them out to be.  They are very vulnerable this year.  Already, we’ve seen two of their starting pitchers go down to injury.  A similar scenario of injuries among the Cards position players – especially if one of them is named Pujols – could spell disaster for St. Louis.  Again, a Cubs turnaround could land them in the catbird’s seat.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not trying to be pollyanaish here.  The Cubs have their problems.  No doubt about that.  But the problems can be overcome.  Already in the first two months of the season we have witnessed some pleasant surprises from the Cubs.  Who could have predicted the re-birth of Carlos Silva?  Starlin Castro has been a pleasant surprise early in the season.  He’s going through some struggles currently, but that’s all part of the rookie adjustment.  Tyler Colvin has continued his good hitting from Spring Training.  Marlon Byrd, Alfonso Soriano, and Kosuke Fukudome are all hitting well.  My favorite whipping boy, Mike Fontenot, has gotten his mojo back from 2008.  All is not lost.

Of course, you can’t talk about the good without talking about the bad.  Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez have both been in a season-long slump.  DLee appears to be pulling out of his.  Ramirez not so much.  But even this is good news if viewed in the proper light.  If the Cubs can stay in contact with the division leaders while their number three and four hitters stink up the joint, that bodes well for the team when Lee and Ramirez get back in the groove.  At least that’s the way I choose to view the situation.

I don’t have any such good vibes about the bullpen.  It stinks.  John Grabow has been horrible, the youngsters have been inconsistent (as should be expected from youngsters), and Carlos Zambrano did not solve the setup man role dilemma.  However, hope may be just over the horizon. 

With both Grabow and Esmailin Caridad on the DL, the Cubs have added Andrew Cashner to the bullpen.  Cashner has had a terrific year in the minor so far as a starting pitcher.  However, Cashner’s background is as a closer in college (one of the best), so in my mind, he is a welcome addition to an otherwise weak bullpen.  For the time being, Sean Marshall (who is having a very nice year) will handle the 8th inning duties, but don’t be surprised to see Cashner take over those duties in the very near future.

So can we please put the “trade everyone” talk away for another month.  Let’s first see what June brings.  If things don’t turn around for the Cubs, then let’s start talking about the future.  But for now, let’s concentrate on the present.

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Ken Griffey, Jr. announced his returement yesterday.  In all honesty, it was probably time.  The 40-year old Griffey really hasn’t been the Ken Griffey, Jr. we have come to know and love for many years.

But I don’t want to bash Griffey.  I’m sure he’d be the first to admit that the last several years have not been his best.  Instead, I want to remember the young Griffey.  The Seattle Mariners Griffey of old, before he was the Cincinnati Reds Griffey.  He was a young-faced kid with a smile a mile wide, a joyful personality, and a bat that could crush the ball.  He also had a Gold Glove-caliber glove.  In fact, my mitt is a Ken Griffey, Jr. model.

When I was a kid, I had the opportunity to go to the old Comiskey Park to see the White Sox play the Orioles.  I was by no means a White Sox fan, but my Dad somehow came up with the tickets, so we went.  We got to the game early and I got to see the two teams take batting practice.  We were sitting in foul territory down the right field line and I remember watching Jim Palmer (yes, it was that long ago) shagging flies in the outfield.

To that point, I was not a Jim Palmer fan.  I didn’t dislike him.  I mostly didn’t think about him.  He played for a team I didn’t care about in a league I didn’t follow.  Even so, that day I became a Jim Palmer fan.  The reason is that while he was shagging flies, I could see the joy with which he approached the game.  He was like a big kid out there.  He’d elbow out a teammate to get to a fly ball or he’d snag one behind his back.  He was just having fun.  The joy he displayed that day is the same joy I feel everytime I put on a glove and play catch with my kids or shag flies with one of the kid’s teams.  Ken Griffey displayed that same kind of joy in the way he approached the game.

Unfortunately for Griffey – and all of us who loved to watch him play – injuries took some of the joy out of the game for him.  His injuries got to be so commonplace that they became a punchline to a bad joke.  He played the outfield with reckless abandon (a trait I love) and he paid the price.  His legs betrayed him.  Then his glove betrayed him.  And finally when his bat betrayed him, he decided it was time to go.

Griffey didn’t end up having the kind of career a lot of people thought he would have.  And yet, he had a Hall of Fame career.  If he could be that good while dealing with one bad break after another, I have to wonder how good he really could have been with a couple of breaks going his way.

Derrek Lee continued his hot hitting going 7-9 in the series with the Dodgers.  In the first game of the series, Lee drove in all threre of the Cubs runs on an RBI single and a two-run homer.  Lee has now pushed his season hitting line up to .246/.352/.391 with 6 homeruns and 23 RBI.

The Cubs pitching was also very good during the three-game set with the Dodgers.  The Cubs staff managed to shut out LA in the two Cubs victories and only gave up 8 hits in the those two games.  Dempster got the victory in game one and Ted Lilly was credited with the win in game two.

However, not everything is peaches and cream for the Cubs.  First, Aramis Ramirez is suffering from an injured thumb and missed the series with LA.  He had a cortisone shot on Thursday and it is hoped that he is ready for the first game of the series with the Cardinals on Friday at Wrigley.  But even getting Ramirez back in the line-up is not such a great thing.  He is hitting just .160/.225/.269 on the year and he has not shown any signs of breaking out of his season-long slump.

Carlos Zambrano was taken to the hospital yesterday after complaining of severe stomach pain.  Doctors feared he was suffering from appendicitis, but tests came back negative.  There was no word on what may have caused his lower intestinal discomfort nor when he might be ready to play again.

Jeff Baker got the start at third base on Thursday, but had to leave the game in the eighth inning when he completely lost sight in his right eye.  That according to Carrie Muskat on MLB.com via Twitter.  I’m no doctor, but that sounds pretty serious.  Let’s hope it is nothing too bad and that Baker regains sight in his right eye very soon.

UPDATE: Jeff Baker saw the Cubs opthamologist following yesterday’s game and was diagnosed with an ocular migraine.  The report I read didn’t say if his vision had returned or if he would be ready to play this weekend.

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What a weird year it has been in Major League Baseball.  Just look at the standings.  At the moment, the Reds are in first place in the NL Central with St. Louis trailing by a game.  That’s not a complete shock.  The Reds were picked by some prognosticators before the season to be a pretty good team.  I, on the other hand, said I didn’t think they would be very good and I still expect them to fall off the pace.

In the NL East, although the Phillies are leading the division, only 3.0 games separate the Phils from the last place Nationals.  Atlanta has struggled, but is just 1.5 games back of the Phils, with the Mets pulling into third place, 2.0 games out of first place.

The Padres, who were projected to be the worst (or at least one of the worst) team(s) in the NL currently have the best record in the league.  Heading into the weekend, they have a record of 28-19  and lead the NL West.  The Dodgers are 2.0 games behind the Padres and the Rockies are 3.0 back.

In the AL East, most people thought Tampa Bay would be good, but I’m not sure they thought the Rays would be as good as they have been so far this year.  With a record of 33-15, they are 4.5 games ahead of the Yankees and 6.5 games up on the third place Red Sox.  Even Toronto, who started quick out of the gate, has a record of 27-22.  With that record, the Blue Jays could be leading either the AL Central or West.

In the AL Central, Minnesota leads the division by 1.5 games over Detroit.  The White Sox, who are seven games under .500, are in third place, followed by the Royals and the hapless Indians.

The AL West is all topsy turvy.  Most “experts” thought the AL West would be a race between the Angels and the Mariners.  At the moment, the Angels and Mariners are fighting it out for third place in the division.  LA is 23-26 while Seattle has a record of 18-28.  The class of the division at the moment is the Texas Rangers who sport a 26-21 record.  They are currently 1.5 games up on Oakland.

I’m sticking by the picks I made earlier in the year.  Even so, I have to admit that the way that some teams are playing — both good and bad — has been a surprise.  I guess that why they bother to play the games.

In a recent post to his blog, Poznanski wrote about some of the inaccuracies in the film Field of Dreams.  I’ll deal with Poznanski’s opinion of the film in a second, but the conversation got me thinking about my favorite baseball movies of all time. 

As it turns out, Field of Dreams is my favorite baseball movie.  It might be more accurate to say that Field of Dreams is my favorite movie involving baseball since it really isn’t, strictly speaking, a baseball movie.  However, I think that would be splitting hairs.

At the start of every baseball season I do two things.  First, I rent the nine part Baseball documentary series by Ken Burns.  I really wish that Burns would update the series.*  It left off in the 1980’s and so much has happened since then.  True, I’ve lived through the past 20 years and I’ve witnessed the things that have happened in baseball.  Even so, I’d like to see how Burns would deal with it.

*As it turns out, my wish will soon be granted.  Unbeknownst to me, Burns is working on a two-part “10th inning” (top of the 10th and bottom of the 10th) expansion of his Baseball series.  The new episodes will be aired on PBS in September 2010. 

The second thing I do is watch Field of Dreams.  For me, watching the film in late March/early April is the sports equivalent of the seasons changing from Winter to Spring.  In truth, football has been over for a while when April rolls around, but it still feels like we are moving from football into baseball season.  It is an annual ritual I perform to mark the changing of the seasons and the renewal of life.  Wow, that last sentence sounds probably deeper than I meant it, but you get the idea.

Field of Dreams is clearly my favorite baseball movie.  It is also my second favorite movie of all time, behind only It’s A Wonderful Life (Now you see how I roll).  What is less clear is in what order my next favorite baseball movies fall.  In second place, I would have to put The Natural.    I remember when The Natural first came out (1984) I purposely avoided it.  I can exactly explain why other than to say that I thought it would make a mockery of baseball.  If you’ve seen the film, you know that’s ridiculous, but I was young and foolish at the time.

The next three could be in just about any order.   They are Bull Durham, Major League, and Sugar.  Sugar is a very different film from the other two, and that is probably one of the reasons I liked it so much.  It was much more realistic than any of the other films, including Field of Dreams and The Natural.  While the other films explored other issues while using baseball as a vehicle for that exploration, Sugar was a realistic portrayal of a young Dominican coming to the U.S. to play baseball. 

I know a lot of people like For Love of the Game.  I have to be honest and tell you I’ve never seen it.  I’m not avoiding it, but for whatever reason, I’ve never watched it.  I probably should do that.

Anyway, I mentioned earlier that Poznanski took exception to the historical inaccuracies in Field of Dreams.  His article starts by talking about another article written by Charles Pierce of the Boston Globe.  Pierce wrote about the fact that the Iowa corn-field-turned-baseball-field portrayed in Field of Dreams is up for sale and he encouraged someone to buy it, plow it under, and plant corn.  Pierce is not a fan of the film. 

Pierce’s biggest complaint is that all of the players who came out of the corn to play baseball are white.  Not only is this historically inaccurate, it is also insensitive and racist.  He also points out that Terrence Mann  (James Earl Jones’ character), who is said to be a black-activist from the sixties, does not seem to notice, or if he does, doesn’t seem to mind.  He even gives a long, heart-felt monolouge about the good old days of segregated baseball, and hence, segregated life in America.

Poznanski seems to be more bothered by the fact that in the film, Shoeless Joe Jackson (played by Ray Liotta) bats right-handed and throws left-handed, just the opposite of the way Shoeless Joe did in real life.  It also bothers him that the young Moonlight Graham (played by Frank Whaley) is much shorter than the older Graham (played by Burt Lancaster), has different colored eyes, and uses a Jack Clark model bat* during the ghost baseball games. 

*I’m not 100% sure about this, but I think that Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) provided the equipment for the game, so that explains why ghost baseball players from the early part of the 20th century are using bats designed for players in the 1980’s.

Poz also points out some other problems with Shoeless Joe.  For instance, the real Shoeless Joe was an illiterate southerner.  But in the film, Liotta plays him as not only articulate, but with a New Jersey accent.  Couldn’t he at least have tried to take on the persona of Jackson?  Isn’t that part of acting?

Finally, Poznanski points out that all of the ghost baseball players seem to be from the early 20th century except Gil Hodges, who played in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  At one point in the film, a young Moonlight Graham is naming off the players he sees on the field and includes Hodges.  Graham may have known of Hodges prior to his (Graham’s) death in 1965,* but he certainly wouldn’t have known of Hodges during his (Graham’s) playing days.  

*I just found another inaccuracy that I haven’t heard brought up elsewhere.  In the film, the woman from the newspaper in Chisholm, MN says that “Doc” Graham died in 1972.  However, according to Wikipedia, the ultimate knowledge base, he died in 1965.  Here’s a link to the original trailer from the Field of Dreams and it includes the Chisholm newspaper lady’s grevious error.

Truthfully, I don’t have a problem with any of this stuff.  Think about it.  If you are going to buy into the reality created in the film, you have to accept that dead baseball players can emerge from the corn provided you build them a baseball field.  Right there you’ve left the real world and gone into another dimension.  If you can accept that, you can’t be bothered with what side of the plate Shoeless Joe swings from or how many Negro League players are represented in the corn.  You’ve already traveled to a different world.  Accept things at face value.  Don’t ruin it by over-analyzing the new world you’ve entered.

I agree with all of the inaccuracies/inconsistencies that Poz points out.  He’s right.  They are real.  The only difference is that these inaccuracies/inconsistencies don’t bother me.  I’m okay with them.  I can accept them and still enjoy the film.

But there is one thing Poz points out that I have to disagree with.  If you’ll recall, the premise of the film is that Ray Kinsella was living with the regret he felt for telling his father that he could never respect him because his hero (i.e. Shoeless Joe Jackson) was a criminal.  Poz doesn’t think the regret from a careless comment like this is dramatic enough to summon voices and dead baseball players from the great beyond.

I have to respectfully disagree.  Imagine if the last thing you ever told your father was that you could never respect him.  As a father myself, that would eat away at me for the rest of my life.  I want to do everything I can for my kids to make their lives better.  Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail.  But I hope beyond hope that they respect my efforts.  I hope they respect the life I live and the values I hold.  It would bother me to no end if they didn’t respect me.

So for Kinsella, who is a father himself in the film, thinking back on his relationship with his father, he realizes the pain his father must have felt to hear his son tell him that he didn’t respect him. To know that those were the last words he ever spoke to his father makes it all the worse.  So I think such a comment is the perfect catylast for some serious soul searching and regret. 

I also think it is the perfect reason to plow under a corn field and build a baseball field.  I know I’d do it.  That’s why Field of Dreams is still my favorite baseball movie.

My only comment concerning Howry is, why?  Granted, the Cubs need another arm for the bullpen.  The only criteria Howry fills though is that he is right handed.  Other than that, he has been a mess this season.  He has always been prone to the long ball, but this year he has given up six dingers in just 14 innings.  It seems to me that the Cubs are throwing gasoline on their bullpen fire.

Given the chance, I have to believe that one or more of the Cubs young arms could step in to shore up the bullpen.  Guys like Justin Berg, James Russell, Esmailan Caridad come to mind, but there are also Triple-A starters like Jay Jackson and Andrew Cashner who are available and throwing great this year.  Why would the Cubs elect to go with an apparent reclamation project instead of giving one of their up-and-comers a chance?

I hope Howry joins the Cubs and is lights out, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it.  He has struggled all year and a simple uniform change probably won’t make much of a difference.  Of course, stranger things have happened.  Take Carlos Silva for instance…

In the article, Rosenthal admits that Piniella is blameless for the Cubs woes.  He admits that it’s not Piniella’s fault that neither Derrek Lee nor Aramis Ramirez are hitting.  He admits that it’s not Piniella’s fault that Jim Hendry provided an “inadequate bullpen,” which has included a season-ending injury to Angel Guzman and a multi-year deal with the underperforming John Grabow.  Finally, he admits that it is not Piniella’s fault that there is an everpresent doom and gloom surrounding the Cubs.  Even so, Rosenthal thinks it makes sense to fire Piniella.

Rosenthal says that Piniella won’t quit on his own, so the Cubs should end his misery and fire him.  Sort of a managerial mercy killing.  That way, Piniella will still get paid and the Cubs can move on without him.  Rosenthal suggests that the appropriate replacement for Piniella would be his bench coach, Alan Trammel.  Perhaps Rosenthal is basing his opinion on the stellar job Trammel did while managing the Tigers.  Oh, wait…

A point that Rosenthal makes in the article is that managers are seldom fired because of one mistake or one incident.  Instead, they are fired when a team needs a new energy and new direction.  I’ll admit, I was amazed when Jack McKeon took over a struggling Marlins team midway through the 2003 season and led them to a World Series Championship.  I was also surprised when Jim Tracy took over a Rockies club that underperformed under Clint Hurdle and then led them to the playoffs.  However, as Rosenthal himself admits, statistically speaking, changing the manager in the middle of the season rarely turns around a struggling team.

So, if Rosenthal knows that Piniella is not to blame for the vast majority of the Cubs problems and he knows that changing managers mid-season rarely produces desired results, why is he suggesting that the Cubs fire Piniella?  My only guess is that Rosenthal had a deadline and couldn’t think of anything else to write.  Other than that possibility, Rosenthal’s article makes absolutely no sense.

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The big news last night prior to the Cubs 4-1 victory over the Phillies was that the Cubs had re-signed reliever Bob Howry.  Howry was part of the Cubs clubhouse from 2006-08 before signing with San Francisco in 2009 and then Arizona in 2010.

Howry has had a rough go of it this year.  His 1-0 record belies the fact that he has a 10.67 ERA in 14.0 innings pitched.  In those 14 innings, he has walked six, struckout six, and givien up six homeruns (Ouch!).  As a result of his performance this year, the D-Backs released him earlier this week.  And as CSNChicago.com reported, the Cubs signed him off the scrap heap to bolster their anemic bullpen.  However, it now appears CSN Chicago jumped the gun.

During last night’s game, Len Kasper and Bob Brenly indicated that no deal had been reached with Howry.  Paul Sullivan on ChicagoBreakingsports.com reported that the Cubs had not signed Howry, although the team wasn’t ruling out the possibility.

You would have thought that would be the final word, but the plot thickens.  Following the game last night, Lou Piniella sounded like the manager of a team that had just signed Howry.

“If it happens, it would give us some experience in our bullpen from the right side.  I’m not saying anything’s going to happen.  I’m saying that when we had him before he was a rock in the clubhouse.  He was great with the young pitchers.”

Then, on his WGN Radio show, Dave Kaplan said that a deal was in place for Howry to join the Cubs and that the final paperwork would be completed in the next day or two.  He reiterated his belief on his blog by saying that the Cubs would announce Howry’s signing in the next 48 hours (from 10:30 CT last night).  He bases this belief on the fact that friends of Howry and his wife were told that the Howry’s will be moving back to Chicago.

I guess we will know soon enough, but my question is, why is it that big of a deal?  Is Bob Howry really the guy that is going to cure the Cubs bullpen ills?  It’s great that Howry was a rock in the clubhouse during his last stint with the Cubs, but is that going to help him get any batters out now?

Granted, players sometimes respond to a change of scenery, but is Howry really going to go from a pitcher with a 10.67 ERA to a difference maker in the Cubs bullpen?  I seriously doubt it.  Plus, I don’t see Howry taking on the 8th inning set-up duties.  He is more of a 6th or 7th inning guy, a role the Cubs have not had much trouble with this year.

If the Cubs do sign Howry, I wouldn’t place too much hope on the move or expect too much from him.  He will be a minor cog in the Cubs bullpen and will not suddenly turn the Cubs weak bullpen into a strength for the team.