Sweet Lou

Cubs manager Lou Piniella retired yesterday.  He had already announced that this would be his last season, but yesterday he hung them up unexpectedly early.  Haters (i.e., Cardinals and White Sox fans) will say that it's just because he couldn't take any more losing, but in reality, it's because his 90-year old mom is very ill. You've gotta admire Sweet Lou for choosing family over the game he loves and has been involved in for almost 50 years.  Even though Lou didn't get to go out the way he wanted, I thought it was classy that he shared the spotlight with Bobby Cox on his last visit to Wrigley.  Fans gave him a standing ovation on several occasions and chanted his name, so shame on those sportswriters who accused Lou of phoning it in the past two seasons. Pitcher Sean Marshall said it best, "You hate to see a grown man kind of tear up.  It just shows his heart and his drive for baseball and his love for his family." No one should ever doubt Piniella's effort or determination even if the results didn't always turn out the way the fans wanted. 

On a personal note, Sweet Lou is my favorite Cubs manager of all-time and I will miss him dearly.  He tells it like it is in an entertaining way.  He was firm but fair to his players.  And no one can argue with an umpire quite like Lou. :)  Read it and weep: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100822&content_id=13777148&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Good luck to interim manager Mike Quade; he will need it.  Lou Piniella is a tough act to follow.

I'm bringing blogging back!

Why hello there, sports fans!  As you can see, it has been over 3 years since I have blogged on this site.  I did briefly relocate to MySpace but since it is a ghost town, I'm back!  My friend Carol has inspired me to resurrect my blog, so here I am.  My first order of business is to go on a total Cubs rant.  What in the world has happened to my beloved team?  Two years ago, we had 8 All-Stars.  Right now, I don't think we could beat most single A teams with our collections of has-beens and never will-bes.  I had hope that the new owners, the Ricketts, would bring a championship to Chicago soon but it sure looks like that will now be years in the making.  The only good news on that front is that I won't be rushing to get that Cubs tatoo I promised my sister I would get when we finally won the World Series. ;)  I truly hope that some of these prospects we have received after trading fan favorites Teddy, The Riot, Fontenot, and D.Lee will pan out, but I have become cautiously optimistic over the years.  I like to refer to this painful process as "Cubbie Clearance-everything must go!"  There are only a handful of players that I would welcome back to this team next year, and they include Byrd, Soriano, Dempster, Marshall, Soto, and rookies Castro & Colvin.  That leaves 18 spots on the roster so Jim Hendry has his work cut out for him.  Considering this guy signed Milton Bradley last year, that does not inspire much confidence.  Wait 'til next year...or the year after that...or the year after that.